LETTERS  TO  ISABEL 


'  X^X  ^ 

/j/£S  t*~4-i^- 


Letters  to  Isabel 

By 

Lord  Shaw  of  Dunfermline 


With  Right  Illustrations 


NEW  XSJF  YORK 
GEORGE    H.    DORAN    COMPANY 


WHO   IS   ISABEL? 

It  is  always  refreshing  to  get  off  the  beaten  track  whether 
in  art  or  literature,  or  life. 

We  are  very  familiar  with  the  stereotyped  biography  or 
autobiography  which  describes  the  passage  of  a  man  or  woman 
from  the  cradle  to  the  grave,  sometimes  at  great  and  weari- 
some length,  and  with  unnecessary  superfluity  of  detail. 
When  a  bulky  volume  bearing  the  winsome  title  "Letters  to 
Isabel"  looms  upon  your  vision,  your  curiosity  is  at  once 
piqued,  and  you  naturally  enquire,  "Who  is  Isabel*?" 

One  privilege  to  know  intimately  the  source  and  inspiration 
of  this  beautiful  book  makes  bold  to  assert  that  the  family 
life  of  a  man  is  his  true  life,  where  he  is  found  at  his  best, 
though  sometimes,  alas,  at  his  worst!  It  was  in  the  far  back 
days  that  I  was  first  privileged  to  obtain  a  glimpse  of  a 
family  life  more  beautiful  and  sacred  than  most. 

One  day  in  a  grey  old  family  house  on  the  North  side  of 
Edinburgh  I  saw  for  the  first  time  a  solemn,  round-faced 
sturdy  child  with  large,  wistful,  grey  eyes  and  an  aureole  of 
red-gold  hair.  The  occasion  was  a  meeting  between  her  and 
another  imp  of  mischief  bearing  my  name,  the  result  a  broken 
doll,  passion,  tears,  ultimate  forgiveness,  but  little  enthusiasm. 

On  the  ruins  of  that  disastrous  day,  however,  was  built  a 
very  fair  and  rare  fabric,  a  soul-satisfying  friendship  between 
two  houses  which  has  survived  every  wind  of  adversity  and 
frost  of  fate. 

If  I  have  a  fault  to  find  with  this  book  it  is  that  there  are 
too  few  glimpses  of  that  family,  one  of  unusual  affection  and 
beauty  and  charm.  Perhaps  in  these  days  when  reverence 


ii  WHO  IS  ISABEL? 

and  wonder  have  had  to  hide  their  diminished  heads  in  our 
midst  Lord  Shaw  does  well  to  guard  the  portals  of  his  house 
of  life.  Nevertheless  the  home  being  the  true  test  of  a  man's 
quality  none  can  be  indifferent  to  the  world's  knowledge  and 
opinion  of  it.  Besides,  what  precept  equals  example  for 
practice  or  imitation"?  ; 

Just  here  and  there  in  these  fascinating  pages  there  are 
gleams  which  are  provocative,  such  as  the  exquisite  tribute 
paid  to  Lady  Shaw  "after  forty  years."  Perhaps  these  gleams 
are  all  the  more  effective  because  they  are  not  too  much  in- 
sisted on. 

In  the  spring  of  1915  Isabel,  the  last  leaf  on  the  family 
tree,  gave  her  heart  and  life  into  the  keeping  of  one  of  the 
great  and  gallant  ones  who  laid  youth  and  love  and  life  on 
the  altar  of  his  country's  service. 

In  a  long  life  of  varied  experience  I  have  come  up  with  no 
more  beautiful  love  story ;  it  was  an  idyll,  alas,  too  poignantly 
short,  cut  off  in  all  its  living  beauty  by  the  great  holocaust 
which  robbed  England,  and  broke  so  many  hearts. 

I  saw  this  delightful  pair  in  many  queer  settings  ordained 
by  war  service.  I  remember  them  best  in  a  little  house  in 
Colchester  before  he  went  "over  there,"  the  maiden  of  the 
red-gold  aureole  struggling  with  the  unaccustomed  problems 
of  housekeeping  under  difficulties,  aided  only  by  an  Irish  help, 
of  very  rich  and  diverting  quality. 

For  the  guidance  of  those  two,  so  dear  to  her  heart,  a  rather 
old  housekeeper  wrote  a  little  book  called  Letters  to  a  War 
Bride.  One  of  the  chapters  dealt  with  the  days  that  were 
coming  when  they  should  be  establishing  the  real  home  in  the 
heart  of  London.  Ah  me !  he  sleeps  on  one  of  the  ridges  of  the 
Somme  which  will  be  "forever  England"  to  some  of  us,  and 
Isabel  is  the  heroine  of  her  father's  book. 

Perhaps  never  has  a  distinguished  public  man  made  so 


WHO  IS  ISABEL?  iii 

late  an  entry  into  the  world  of  letters  and  with  such  complete 
success.  But  his  true  literary  life  began  very  early,  at  his 
mother's  knee,  in  the  days  of  the  tall  bookcase.  He  carried  it 
right  through  his  after  life,  and  it  lent  a  wonderful  strain  of 
romance  and  beauty  to  the  legal  aspect  of  affairs.  For  he 
was  never  too  busy  to  consider  the  children.  Wonderful  plays, 
poems,  fairy  stories  he  wrote  for  them.  Why  has  the  world 
been  robbed  of  them?  Why  are  some  of  them  not  in  this 
book? 

Shall  we  have  more  reminiscences  dealing  with  this  delight- 
ful side  of  the  author's  life?  It  is  what  most  readers  will 
desire  when  they  lay  down  "Letters  to  Isabel."  The  curtain 
has  only  been  lifted  a  little  way.  Like  Oliver  Twist  we 
ask  for  more.  i 

I  could  almost  prophesy  that  when  Isabel  becomes  a 
familiar,  not  to  say  notorious  person  in  America,  we  shall 
have  it. 

A.  BURNETT  SMITH 

(Annie  S.  Swan} 


NOTE  : — These  letters  were  written  at  the  places 
and  on  the  dates  they  bear.  Their  order  has  had  to 
be  rearranged,  so  as  to  put  them  more  into  sequence 
with  the  events  with  which  they  deal. 

I  gratefully  acknowledge  the  permission  accorded 
to  me  by  Lord  Pentland  to  quote  from  the  little 
bundle  of  letters  written  to  me  by  Sir  Henry 
Campbell-Banner  man. 

While  I  was  searching  about  for  a  suitable  print 
of  the  Parliament  House  of  Edinburgh,  my  dear 
and  distinguished  colleague  Lord  Dunedin — who  is 
an  expert  in  so  much,  including  photography — 
delightfully  relieved  the  difficulty  by  taking,  for  me 
and  for  the  book,  the  charming  picture  which  recalls 
the  scene  of  so  many  of  our  labours. 

S.  OF  D. 


CONTENTS 

LETTER  PAGE 

1.  THE  PROMISE i 

2.  ROSYTH 5 

3.  THE  HIGH  GLAZED  BOOKCASE 8 

4.  BOOKS  FROM  THE  BOOKCASE 14 

5.  SCHOOLS  AND  THE  LAW 19 

6.  BEFORE  THE  BALLOT 24 

7.  Two  STEPS  AT  A  TIME 30 

8.  THE  THREE  ROADS.    WHICH  ? 34 

9.  THROUGH  THE  METROPOLITAN  GATE           ...  42 
10.  MURDER  ?  FORGERY  ?  NEITHER         ....  46 
n.  TRACTS  OF  WILDERNESS  .         .         .         .         .         .  55 

12.  WORSE  THAN  AN  INFIDEL         .         .         .         .         -65 

13.  THROUGH  THE  'EIGHTIES  .         .        .         .         .  71 

14.  ENTER  MR.  GLADSTONE 77 

15.  THE  ELOQUENT  IN  TALK  ......  83 

16.  THE  SARCASM  CARVED  IN  STONE       .         ...         .92 

17.  THE  HARRY  VANE  POINT 97 

/ 

18.  A  SPORTING  AFFAIR          .         .         .         .         .         .  104 

19.  A  FRONT-BENCH  MAN  WITH  A  BACK- BENCH  MIND       .  no 

20.  THISTLE  AND  SHAMROCK  .         .                  .         .         .  117 

21.  A  POLITICAL  LECTURE      .        .         .         .        .        .  127 

22.  THE  WIZARDS          .  .     ,        .        .               •;.         .  136 


viii  CONTENTS 

LETTER  FADE 

23.  THE  MILLIONAIRE    .         .        ...        .         .  144 

24.  THE  LEARNED  GHILLIE    .         .        .        .        .        .  151 

25.  A  DREAMER'S  DREAM       .         .        .        .        .        .  155 

26.  THE  AUTHENTIC  LETTER  .         .        .        .         .        .  160 

27.  NIGHTMARE  AND  AWAKENING   .        ,         .        .         .  166 

28.  THE  SACRED  BATTLEFIELD        .         .         .        .         .171 

29.  STORM  AND  SUNSHINE 179 

30.  BOTHA  AND  SMUTS 193 

31.  "  ABOVE  THIS  SCEPTRED  SWAY  "  204 

32.  EDINBURGH  AND  FREEDOM 210 

33.  FROM  REPRISALS  TO  RECONCILIATION        .         .         .  219 

34.  TEMPTATIONS  IN  THE  WILDERNESS    ....  227 

35.  SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN  .         .         .         .  234 

36.  SNOWED  UNDER 244 

37.  THE  STRANGE  WILL         .         .         .  -       .        .         .  252 

38.  THE  MAKING  OF  A  MINISTRY    .         .        /       .         .  258 

39.  KEEPING  STARS  IN  THEIR  ORBIT       .         .        .         .  271 

40.  To  THE  GILDED  CHAMBER         .....  279 

41.  THE  IMPORTATION  OF  ARMS      .         .        .        .         .  284 
.42.  THE  SWISH  OF  THE  SCYTHE      .         .         ....  290 

43.  THE  FIRST  SINN  FEIN  REBELLION     .                  .         .  293 

44.  RIGHT  TO  WORK  AND  DUTY  TO  WORK     »         .         .  298 

45.  "TRUTH  AND  JUSTICE  THEN"  .....  304 

46.  LITERATURE  AND  THE  LEAGUE           ....  308 

INDEX 315 


LIST  OF  PLATES 


THE  AUTHOR          .  .  .  .  .  .  Frontispiece 

FACING   PAGE 

THE  PARISH  CHURCH  AND  ANCIENT  ABBEY  OF  DUNFERM- 

LINE       .        .        .         .        .        .        .        .         .16 

ISABEL          .                           .  .      66 

THE  ROYAL  PALACE  OF  DUNFERMLINE  .  .  .     144 

PRINCIPAL  RAINY          .        .         .        .  .176 

THE  PARLIAMENT  HOUSE  OF  EDINBURGH  .  .        .  .     208 

SIR  HENRY  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN         .  .         .  .     241 

CRAIGMYLE  .                          .  .        .  '  .     288 


LETTERS   TO    ISABEL 


LETTER    I 

THE    PROMISE 

Craigmyle. 

August  8,  1919. 
MY  DEAR  ISABEL, 

I  can  write  again ! 

Sitting  in  the  loggia  here,  I  look  over  great  fair  spaces 
of  Scotland.  Under  an  arc  of  crystal  air  the  scene,  serene 
and  splendid,  stretches  out :  horizoned  by  Mounts  Battock 
and  Keen,  by  Lochnagar,  by  Morven,  and  away  west  by 
far  Ben  Avon — seventy  miles  from  point  to  point ! 

If  outrivals  the  noble  view  which  spread  before  the 
eyes  of  Marmion  and  his  men  when  they  surveyed,  from 
the  Braids,  Edinburgh  and  the  gleaming  Firth,  and  north 
to  the  bounding  line  of  the  Ochils.  Then  it  was  that 
FitzEustace  could  not  forbear  and 

"Cried,  '  Where's  the  coward  who  would  not  dare 
To  fight  for  such  a  land  !  '  " 

But  of  those  great  things — daring,  fighting,  dying — 
there  is  no  question  here.  For  it  is  the  land  of  the 
Gordons.  Alas !  to  many  homes,  away  out  there,  has 
come  the  Great  Bereaving. 

And  so  it  is  that  it  is  not  space  nor  beauty  that  most 


2  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

impresses  one.  It  is  that  all  at  last  is  peace.  The  Great 
War  has  closed. 

In  town,  from  day  to  day,  one  vividly  realizes  that, 
although  peace — a  glorious  peace — has  been  won,  yet  deep 
problems  have  arisen,  and  suffering  and  peril  remain,  for 
our  heroic  people.  From  the  highest  political  to  the 
humblest  domestic  spheres  we  have  still  to  reap  the 
aftermath  of  war. 

I  received  a  letter  a  few  days  ago  from  General 
Smuts,  saying  good-bye,  after  his  remarkable  labours  in 
England  and  Paris.  He  was,  as  you  know,  the  repre- 
sentative of  South  Africa  at  the  Peace  Conference,  and 
was  appointed  to  that  high  position  after  his  victorious 
African  campaign.  He  puts  the  same  thought  about  the 
after-war  thus  : — 

"It  will  be  a  great  change  to  go  back  to  my  small  world, 
after  having  taken  part  in  the  greatest  doings  on  earth.  But  I 
shall  at  any  rate  be  very  happy  to  rejoin  my  little  family  after 
an  absence  of  three  and  a  half  years.  What  a  time  that 
has  been  !  What  '  crowded  hours  of  glorious  life.'  But  the 
aftermath  is  coming,  and  I  fear  we  shall  see  grave  troubles 
all  over  the  world.  I  hope  you  have  liked  my  few  parting  words 
to  the  British  Public,  calling  them  to  patience  and  generosity 
in  the  difficult  times  ahead.  Our  worn-out  nerves  and  temper 
are  indeed  going  to  be  put  to  the  severest  test.  I  pray  that 
God  may  not  leave  the  poor,  erring  tribes  of  men  to  their  own 
devices. 

"Good-bye,  my  dear  Friend.  I  send  my  dear  love  to  you 
and  Lady  Shaw. 

"Ever  yours  most  sincerely, 

"T.  C.  SMUTS." 

You  know  what  in  our  home  circle  we  think  of  Smuts. 
He  is — is  he  not  ? — the  Christian  warrior ;  a  fine  combina- 
tion of  courage  and  faith,  of  unquenchable  valour,  and  yet 
of  the  just,  the  serene,  and  the  equal  mind. 


THE   PROMISE  3 

Once,  in  a  letter  which  I  had  from  Sir  Henry  Campbell- 
Bannerman,  and  which  I  shall  tell  you  of  some  day,  he 
described  to  me  what  was  higher  as  a  political  object  than 
party  or  national  triumph,  or  the  overthrow  of  others, 
namely,  to  make — I  think  these  were  his  words — "  to 
make  those  love  us  who  now  hate  us."  And  this — in  the 
grant  of  a  Constitution  to  South  Africa — Sir  Henry 
did.  Both  Botha  and  Smuts  have  talked  to  me  re- 
cently about  him  with  veneration  and  affection,  in  this 
sense. 

But  South  Africa  is  another  story.  After  a  bit  we 
shall  come  to  it.  Meantime,  we  are  not  doing  things 
decently  and  in  order,  for  we  have  not  begun  at  the 
beginning. 

I  am  rather  at  your  mercy ;  you  know  how  importunate 
you  are  that  I  should  "  tell  you  things,"  and  then  how  you 
gravel  me  with  :  "  Why  don't  you  write  that  down?  "  And 
so  I  have  grown  submissive  just  because  I  am  so  brow- 
beaten. 

Autobiography  ?.  Catch  me  !  Horrible  word  :  horrible 
thing !  To  stand  aloof  from  oneself,  mere  impossible 
acrobatics  :  to  pretend  that  you  are  unconcerned  as  to 
whether  you  should  appear  a  pleasing  object? — mere 
useless  affectation. 

So  what  to  do  ?  Just  this  :  to  let  you  see  places, 
events  and  men  just  as  I  happen  to  remember  them;  and 
if  I  stumble  across  the  picture  with  any  of  the  struggles 
and  the  happinesses  of  my  own  life,  I  shall  be  there 
because  you  have  dragged  me  in. 

I  know  that  you  want  something  about  the  early  days. 
Calm  yourself,  my  dear;  perhaps  you  may  hear  from  me 
to-morrow. 


4  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

Meantime,  as  I  say,  it  is  the  peace  of  everything  here 
which  sinks  into  the  soul.  Away  south,  railway  strikes, 
bread  strikes,  coal  strikes,  with  a  haunting  dread  of  social 
upheaval.  Here,  the  fields  of  ripening  grain  and  the 

everlasting  hills. 

Your  grateful 

FATHER. 


LETTER   II 

ROSYTH 

Craigmyle. 

August  9,   1919. 
MY  DEAR, 

Of  all  the  changes  in  the  appearance  of  places  that  I 
can  think  of,  you  will  be  surprised  to  hear  me  name 
Rosyth;  I  think  Rosyth  shows  the  greatest.  It  is  tacked 
on  to  Dunfermline — with  which  it  has  about  as  much 
affinity  as  modern  brass-work  has  to  old  tapestry :  it  is 
born  of  the  spirit  of  war  and  the  needs  of  war,  and  this 
in  a  place  which  was  the  very  backwater  of  peace. 

The  clang-clang  of  industry — at  high  pressure  for  the 
mastery  of  the  seas — resounds  on  a  shore  where  in  the 
'Fifties  you  would  see  a  belt  of  shingly  beach  with  here 
and  there  a  broken  bottle  or  an  old  boot  which  the  shift- 
ing of  the  tide  had  floated  along  from  Limekilns — their 
natural  emporium.  And  you  might  see,  stepping  west- 
wards to  the  Castle  of  Rosyth,  a  couple  of  slow-paced, 
heavily  built  men,  who  addressed  each  other  as  "  Cap- 
tain," and  in  a  floating  odour  of  black  twist  spoke  affec- 
tionately of  a  sloop  or  a  brig  which  bore  a  wife's  or  a 
daughter's  name,  and  which  went  out  across  the  North 
Sea  and  through  the  Cattegat  to  Riga. 

Yet  their  talk,  too,  was  of  change ;  mostly,  however,  of 
decay — the  decay  of  Limekilns  and  Charlestown,  and  even 
Inverkeithing. 


6  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

Such  pictures  could  not  but  remain — etched  into  the 
memory  of  even  the  most  restless  of  boys ;  and  the  scenes 
of  to-day  sometimes  appear  to  fade  away,  and  in  their 
place,  as  on  a  palimpsest  from  which  the  latest  writing 
was  thought  to  have  been  quite  erased,  there  appears  the 
earlier  and  the  primitive  record — imprinted,  overlaid,  but 
ineffaceable. 

There,  for  instance,  are  huge  docks  and  quays,  and 
there  float  battleships,  cruisers,  destroyers — the  wonder  of 
the  age  and  the  terror  of  the  world.  But  all  these  pass 
away,  and  on  the  self-same  spot  I  see  a  little  horseshoe 
of  stone,  the  prongs  projected  well  into  the  salt  water, 
where  children,  adventurously  wandering  from  Dunferm- 
line,  were  wont  to  bathe,  without  guardians  and  without 
fear. 

One  "  grown-up  "  I  remember  well,  a  solicitor  (Scotice, 
a  "  writer  "),  named  Blair — one  of  the  kindliest  humour, 
and  most  oracular  of  speech.  Later,  I  used  to  hear  of 
his  not  infrequent  reply  to  the  not  infrequent  question  : 
"Well,  Mr.  Blair,  how's  business?"  To  this  came,  with 
a  sidelong  cock  of  the  head  :  "  Business,  Sir !  In  the 
language  of  Thomas  de  Quincey,  business  is  suffering 
from  syncope,  or  solemn  pause !  "  This  good  man  came 
for  his  daily  bathe  to  the  "  Basin  of  Rosyth."  And  so  the 
vision  of  the  bustling  present,  with  its  majestic  panoply 
of  naval  power — all  this  fades  out;  and  in  its  place  I  see 
the  tall  and  sinewy  form  of  Thomas  Blair,  the  writer, 
poised  on  a  slab  of  rock,  ere  he  plunged  into  the  grey- 
green  waters  of  the  Firth. 

This,  dear — would  you  believe  it? — was  more  than 
sixty  years  ago.  There  was  then,  as  it  were,  an  interlude 
of  peace  :  the  Crimean  War  was  over  in  1856;  the  follow- 


ROSYTH  7 

ing  was  the  year  of  the  Indian  Mutiny!:  and  so  when  I 
was  six  and  seven — your  respected  father,  if  you  care  to 
know  it,  was  born  in  1850 — there  came  new  place-names 
into  even  the  vocabulary  of  the  child.  The  one,  rever- 
berating through  the  world,  was  Sebastopol :  the  other 
Lucknow;  and  these  I  distinctly  remember  as  the  gates 
which  opened  on  new  avenues  to  wonder;  and  War,  and 
even  Empire,  gave  an  ampler  range  to  the  talk  of  the 
fireside. 

And  so  far  as  the  old  world  was  concerned,  the  next 
nine  years — that  is,  from  the  Mutiny  to  Sadowa — from  the 
shock  and  terror  of  India  to  the  sudden  outbreak  of 
Prussian  military  ambition,  bursting  like  a  new  fear  upon 
Europe — those  nine  years  were  the  years  of  my  conscious 
school  life. 

You  would  like  to  hear  about  that  fireside  talk  and 
that  school  life,  would  you?  Well,  I  am  not  sure.  We 
shall  see  about  it.  Good  night ! 

Your  very  own 

TRUE  LOVE. 


LETTER    III 

THE    HIGH    GLAZED    BOOKCASE 

Craigmyle. 

September  19,  1920. 
DEAR  INFANTA  ISABELLA, 

How  dim  the  memory  grows  about  the  early  years  ! 
And  how  capricious  it  is ! 

No  room  in  this  world — no,  not  in  king's  palace  or 
nobleman's  castle,  or  anything  down  to  the  humblest 
sheiling  on  the  hillside — can  stamp  its  picture  into  my 
mind  so  deeply  as  the  little  reading-parlour  with  the 
high  glazed  bookcase  and  the  great  leathern  arm-chair 
in  which  of  an  evening  she  sat. 

So  brave  and  practical  she  was  !  You  may  see  her 
lineaments  in  the  last  chapter  of  Proverbs.  Yes,  my 
mother  (and  yours  too,  dear,  but  you  must  not  let  her  see 
this  letter!) — they  both  earned  that  priceless  encomium: 
"  In  her  tongue  is  the  law  of  kindness."  Yet  she  was 
austere,  and  with  a  high  authority.  Sometimes  she  was 
bemused ;  and  when  asked  the  reason,  would  reply,  "  Did 
I  look  bethochted  ?  "  and  smile. 

Dimly  I  understood  that  she  was  seeing  again  the 
procession  of  her  sorrows.  And  what  sorrows  they  were  ! 
My  father's  death,  just  as  he  was  making  his  standing 
sure;  then  the  eldest  of  a  family  of  six,  a  lovely  dark- 
ringleted  girl,  in  her  twentieth  year,  her  mother's  be- 
loved counsellor,  fading  away  like  a  flower,  as  if 


THE   HIGH  GLAZED   BOOKCASE          9 

Death  itself  was  afraid  to  snatch  suddenly;  then  the 
infant  girl,  born  on  the  day  of  my  father's  death,  and 
named  after  him,  Alexandrina — she,  too,  torn  from  her 
arms.  I  remember  the  doctor  coming;  and  after  his 
verdict — ah  !  how  I  remember  it ! — never  in  my  life  did 
I  hear  anything  more  pitiful  than  her  heart-broken 
cry. 

Yet  the  dark  clouds  lifted,  scattered  by  the  stirrings 
of  necessity,  and  by  a  second  cause,  on  which  I  dare 
hardly  speak  :  she  kept  up  her  communications  with  the 
Unseen.  Reverence  was  deep  in  her  nature;  and  rever- 
ence is  the  queen  of  the  virtues.  Lest  reverence  should 
degenerate  into  superstition,  lest  sorrow  should  lapse  into 
fetish-worship,  her  broad  downright  sense,  and — I  say  it 
quite  sincerely — her  quick  sense  of  humour,  were  always 
at  hand,  and  life's  balance  swung  evenly,  and  by  and  by 
merrily,  again. 

Twenty  years  after — that  is  to  say,  forty  years  ago  and 
long  before  you  were  born — there  was  a  considerable  out- 
burst of  agnosticism  in  Britain.  I  do  not  mean  the 
shallow  agnosticism  of  the  prig- — which,  of  course,  is 
always  with  us — but  real  agnosticism,  sprung  from  honest 
doubts  and  real  intellectual  dilemmas. 

In  the  early  days  of  which  I  speak  there  were 
distinct  premonitions  of  it.  The  fear  of  it  appeared  like 
a  spectre  to  the  great  and  weary  brain  of  Hugh  Miller, 
and  he  blew  out  his  brains  in  a  house  in  Leith  Walk.  My 
father  had  studied  his  writings  :  among  the  books  on  our 
shelves  I  distinctly  remember  "  The  Testimony  of  the 
Rocks "  and  "  My  Schools  and  Schoolmasters,"  and  I 
recall  discussions  on  his  views.  But  it  was  mostly  the 
practical  answer  that  appealed  to  the  Scotch  mind  :  and 


io  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

in  due  time  many  a  Scotch  response  reverberated  in 
unison  with  Tennyson's — 

"  Leave  thou  thy  sister  where  she  prays  : 
Her  early  faith,  her  happy  views; 
Nor  thou  with  shadowed  hint  confuse 
A  life  that  leads  melodious  lays. 

Her  faith  through  form  is  pure  as  thine ; 
Her  hands  are  quicker  unto  good." 

There  was  she,  in  whose  veritable  presence  we  saw — 

"The  flesh  and  blood 
To  which  she  links  a  truth  divine." 

And  so  was  given  in  our  humble  circle,  as  in  so  many 
others,  the  perennial  answer — the  answer  of  life  to  doubt. 

Now  then,  back  to  the  reading-parlour.  '  Tom,"  she 
used  to  say,  "  I  like  to  hear  clever  men  talk."  I  used  to 
sit  on  a  footstool  at  her  feet;  and  this  she  repeated  to  me 
when  they  went  away  and  the  little  parliaments  ended. 
Weighty  problems  were  handled — but  let  me  first  tell  you 
of  the  books. 

Wodrow's  History :  little  or  no  impression ;  the  super- 
stition against  which  Buckle  so  declaims  in  his  "  History 
of  Civilization  "  was  fleeting  enough. 

"  The  Scots  Worthies  " — a  different  affair.  It  caught 
hold,  and  there  were  passages  in  James  Outline's  dying 
speech  and  several  others  which  mixed  in  my  mind — not 
a  bad  mixture — the  principles  of  civil  liberty  and  religious 
liberty. 

"  The  Pilgrim's  Progress."  There  was  a  book  for 
you  !  A  picture  of  Apollyon — flames  from  the  mouth, 
hoofs  for  feet,  and  "  the  scaly  horror  of  his  tail " ;  oh ! 
the  early  rapture  of  really  seeing  the  devil  incarnate  ! 
Then  the  text :  over  and  over  again  I  read  it  till  all  was 


THE   HIGH   GLAZED   BOOKCASE        u 

familiar,  till  great  stretches  of  the  noblest  poetical  pas- 
sages of  Scripture  passed  into  the  mind,  and  a  gallery 
of  indelible  sketches  was  made — the  Wicket  Gate  and 
the  Slough  of  Despond,  the  Valley  of  Humiliation,  the 
Delectable  Mountains  and  the  Land  of  Beulah.  And 
character-sketches:  unforgettable:  Greatheart;  the  Man 
with  the  Muck  Rake,  and  those  immortal  psychological 
thumb-nail  studies — the  Judge  and  Jury  in  "  Vanity  Fair." 
What  wonder  was  it  that  when  your  and  my  dear  Dick 
gave  up  his  life  at  Thiepval,  and  the  Church  authorities 
wanted  a  scroll  for  his  memorial  tablet,  there  should  at 
once  spring  into  my  mind  the  eloge  of  Bunyan  on  the 
away-going  of  Mr.  Valiant  for  the  Truth,  "  And  so  he 
passed  over,  and  all  the  trumpets  sounded  for  him  on  the 
other  side." 

Have  I  lingered  too  long  over  what  one  might  call 
these  religious  reminiscences?  Well,  dear,  they  were  a 
type.  In  thousands  and  thousands  of  Scotch  homes,  I 
feel  assured  that  this  was  so.  It  largely  accounted  for 
some  of  the  traits — quaint,  if  you  will — and  some  of  the 
forces  and  currents,  quiet  and  still,  but  yet  strong,  and, 
when  opposed,  tumultuous — of  that  Scotch  character  that 
has  modified  many  nations  and  ruled  great  spaces  of  the 
earth.  Jolly  old  Scots  we  are,  to  whom  Providence  in  a 
well-known  sense  has  been  good,  has  it  not? 
.  Good  night !  Sound  sleep  ! 

Your  loving 

FATHER. 

P.S. — Very  well,  my  lass  :  I  will.  You  have  given 
me  back  the  letter  and  asked  me  to  bring  in  something 
about  these  big  theological  fellows — "  Did  they  have  the 


12  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

same  kind  of  upbringing  or  early  impressions  ?  "  Here 
you  are. 

Well,  I  incline  to  the  opinion  that  they  had.  The  very 
same  kind  of  early  training  that  I  have  sketched  was  theirs. 
But  in  their  case,  of  course,  the  soil  was  far  richer.  And 
they  had  a  far  wider  and  far  deeper  University  culture. 
Natures  such  as  theirs  that  were  shocked  into  self-con- 
sciousness by  Hugh  Miller's  death,  and  were  bored  and 
stung  by  the  later  extremes  of  Hegelian  thought — these 
natures  became  a  breed  of  intellectual  giants. 

They  declined  to  bow  the  knee  to  Germany;  they 
remorselessly  pursued  to  its  recesses  every  avenue  of 
German  thought,  and  they  became  the  theological  princes 
of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland,  to  whom  by  and  by  every 
Church  and  University  in  Christendom  did  homage.  Some 
of  them,  such  as  Bruce,  Marcus  Dods  and  Robertson 
Smith,  I  hardly  knew.  Others  I  knew  well,  such  as 
Drs.  Davidson,  Orr  and  Lindsay,  and  Principal  Rainy; 
and  one — the  last  of  the  band  still  with  us — our  friend 
and  my  fellow-student,  Principal  Sir  G.  Adam  Smith.  In 
these — one  and  all — I  found  the  same  traits  :  a  penetrat- 
ing judgment;  a  scholarship  far  beyond  my  limited  reach; 
a  power  of  what  I  may  call  expository  and  illuminative 
controversy.  And  their  gifts  were  rested  upon  a  depth 
of  conviction  and  were  graced  with  that  reverence  of  which 
I  have  spoken  and  which  only  simple  early  training  can 
instil. 

Now,  lest  you  grow  too  solemn,  listen  to  this  :  Was  I 
in  these  very  early  years  "  mighty  in  the  Scriptures  "  ? 
There  seems  to  have  been  something  of  the  sort.  There 
was  a  Mr.  George  Sampson,  a  grocer  of  my  acquaintance, 
for  he  was  a  donor  of  walnuts.  It  is  a  far  back  recollec- 


THE   HIGH   GLAZED   BOOKCASE        13 

tion,  but  it  is  very  clear.  I  had  to  get  my  Scripture 
puzzles  settled,  so  I  went  personally,  and  on  my  own, 
into  the  affair.  I  remember  yet  the  tinkling  of  the  front 
door  bell  as  I  pushed  into  his  shop.  The  customers 
seemed  to  make  way  for  me  as  I  advanced.  I  was  not 
so  high  as  his  counter,  but  I  put  my  hand  up  to  it,  inter- 
rupting his  business  with  the  demand  :  "  Mr.  Sampson," 
said  I,  "  are  you  the  gentleman  that  carried  away  the 

gates  of  Gaza  on  his  back  ?  " 

Your  own, 

S.  OF  D. 


LETTER    IV 

BOOKS    FROM   THE    BOOKCASE 

Craigmyle. 

September  22,  1919. 
MY  DEAR, 

Books,  good  books,  and  plenty  of  them  :  lucky  lass 
that  you  are !  This  is  what  you  have  been  brought  up 
among.  Glad  am  I  that  in  your  day  nearly  all  kinds 
of  literature,  and  certainly  the  good  kind  and  the  great 
kind,  are  not  only  accessible,  but  actually  obtainable 
as  a  possession,  for  every  well-doing  household  in  the 
land. 

Formerly  it  was  so  very  different,  that  it  will  soon 
become  impossible  to  realize  the  striking  change  in  this 
respect  between  the  end  and  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  Then,  books  were  bought  with  self-denial. 
Shall  it  be — with  literature — lightly  come  and  lightly 
go?  Preferring  quantity  to  quality,  and  skimming  to 
study,  people  are,  I  dare  say,  staggering  about  a  bit. 
But  cheer  up! — things  will  right  themselves;  in  litera- 
ture as  in  life,  the  only  thing  that  wears  is  quality — 
character. 

Anyhow,  a  book  then  was  something  individual,  a 
possession,  to  be  weighed  up,  to  be  purchased  with  con- 
sideration, to  be  perused  with  gravity,  to  be  kept  with 
care.  To  stock  a  few  shelves,  then,  cost  as  much  as  to 
furnish  a  quite  excellent  library  to-day.  As  for  variety 

14 


BOOKS  FROM  THE  BOOKCASE    15 

of  interest — I  speak  comparatively — there  was  little  of  it. 
Novel  reading — even  novel  reading  on  the  Sabbath  Day 
— slid  modestly  into  the  ordinary  Scottish  homes  by  the 
artful  wicket-gates  of  Good  Words  and  the  Sunday  at 
Home.  Dr.  Norman  McLeod  and  Dr.  Guthrie  had  much 
to  answer  for !  But  in  the  early  days  of  which  I  speak 
the  hour  and  the  power  of  these  "  daring  innovators  "  had 
hardly,  I  think,  arrived ! 

No.  We  worked  upon  the  solid.  The  literature  of 
knowledge — so  much  has  science  advanced — was  slender ; 
but  the  real  literature  of  power,  especially  the  poets,  that 
did  get  a  grip. 

Imagine,  for  instance,  a  rather  undersized  boy  sitting 
in  the  great  leathern  chair  and  resting  on  one  of  its  arms 
a  large  one-volume  edition  of  Shakespeare's  Plays,  with 
Samuel  Johnson's  essay  prefixed,  and  you  may  h'ear  him 
draw  his  breath  hard  :  he  is  on  his  first  big  excursion 
among  the  immortals,  and  he  is  panting  with  excitement 
over  the  closing  scenes  of  "  Othello."  I  remember  it  as 
if  it  were  yesterday. 

And  there  was  a  Burns — a  genteel  and  very  proper 
edition — but  with  plenty  in  it  to  fire  the  blood  and  to 
move  the  heart,  and  to  show  what  human  language  can 
rise  to  in  the  passionate  exaltation  of  the  love-songs. 
These  last,  being  wedded  to  familiar  national  music, 
became  easily — it  was  the  common  case — a  lifelong 
possession. 

The  non-religious  prose  I  cannot  well  recall,  though 
there  were  reams  of  it,  and  books  like  Mungo  Park's 
"  Travels,"  in  two  great  volumes,  I  read  from  cover  to 
cover.  But  few  made  any  imprint  on  the  memory.  Some 
did.  At  one  end  of  that  scale  there  was,  say,  the  homespun 


16  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

humour  of  "  Mamsie  Waugh,"  and  at  the  other  end  the 
thrilling  episodes  of  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin."  Legree  was 
for  me  the  American  Apollyon. 

When  you  talk  of  books,  don't  forget  the  effects  of 
books  like  that  last.  Owing  to  it,  I  make  free  to  say,  more 
than  to  any  other  cause,  the  sympathies  of  British  homes 
were  enthusiastically  won  for  the  victory  of  Lincoln  and 
the  North,  and  for  the  emancipation  of  the  slave.  We 
had,  you  know,  done  our  bit  in  our  own  dominions;  but 
we  had  done  it  in  our  compromising  British  way  and 
bought  the  owners  out.  But  here  was  a  conflict  not  to  be 
bought  off,  and,  so  far  as  Scotland  was  concerned,  it  was 
founded  on  principles  of  independence,  of  freedom,  of 
brotherhood,  which  our  history  and  our  Burns  had  made 
dear  to  us  and  worth  a  fight. 

In  the  talk  in  which  these  well-instructed,  thoughtful 
men  indulged,  and  which  I  was  privileged  to  hear,  these 
last  ideas  often  recurred.  But  it  went  wide  of  my  reach 
when  they  discussed,  apparently  with  shrewdness,  Adam 
Smith's  "  Wealth  of  Nations "  and  George  Combe's 
"  Constitution  of  Man." 

While  that  was  the  kind  of  atmosphere  (the  Bible, 
Bunyan,  Shakespeare,  Burns) — the  atmosphere  in  which 
Scotch  boys  of  my  time  and  rank  lived,  do  not,  please  do 
not,  put  us  down  either  for  pundits  or  for  prigs.  On  the 
contrary,  it  was  a  wildish,  rollicking,  spirited  time  for 
little  fellows.  And  there  were  the  materials  for  what  is 
a  great  asset  in  a  boy's  life,  not  mystery  exactly,  but  what 
I  call  historical  wonder.  I  made  friends  with  the  clock- 
maker  and  accompanied  him  or  his  son  up  the  tortuous 
stairs  of  the  old  Abbey  Tower  and  into  the  reverberating 
chamber  of  that  great  bell  whose  deep  and  resonant  curfew 


§  g 

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BOOKS   FROM   THE   BOOKCASE         17 

booms — wherever  one  may  wander,  from  childhood  to  age 
— booms  in  the  memory  for  ever.  Then  climbing  higher 
I  reached  the  frieze  of  the  Bartizan,  and  peering  over  the 
frieze,  I  saw  far  down  below,  the  wood  and  classic  glen 
of  Pittencrieff.  These  enclosed  romantic  ruins — the  tower 
and  tomb  of  Malcolm  Canmore,  and  that  pile,  which  I 
knew  to  have  been,  long  ago,  the  birthplace  and  the 
dwelling-place  of  Kings. 

Only  the  other  day  I  verified  some  facts  about  this, 
one  of  which  facts,  if  your  ladyship  were  English,  I  should 
swear  you  didn't  know,  namely,  that  it  was  there  that  King 
Charles  I  of  England  was  born. 

The  story  I  give  and  the  picture  I  send  are  from  the 
standard  history  of  Dunfermline,  by  that  industrious  and 
capable  parish  minister,  Dr.  Peter  Chalmers.  Puzzle  : 
pick  out  the  window  of  the  room  where  the  Martyr  King 
first  saw  the  light. 

The  plodding  record  reads  : — 

"  PALACE.— A  little  to  the  south-east  of  King 
Malcolm  Canmore's  Tower,  and  east  side  of  the  rivulet 
close  to  the  verge  of  the  glen,  in  a  very  romantic  situation, 
are  the  ruins  of  a  palace,  once  the  residence  of  the 
Sovereigns  of  Scotland.  ...  At  the  western  end  tradition 
still  points  out  a  high  window,  now  completely  covered 
with  ivy,  and  the  chimney,  nearly  entire,  of  the  room  in 
which  that  ill-advised  and  unfortunate  monarch,  Charles  I, 
was  born,  which  event  occurred  on  the  igth  November, 
1600.  This,  too,  was  the  birthplace  of  his  sister  Elizabeth, 
on  the  igth  August,  1596,  afterwards  Queen  of  Bohemia, 
from  whom  her  present  Majesty  [Queen  Victoria]  is 
descended." 


i8  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

In  those  days  no  dull  definiteness  like  that  weighed 
me  down,  but  all  around  there  was  impressionism  and 
romance.  When  my  guide  called  to  me  from  the  bell 
tower,  I  tumbled  or  clambered  down  the  worn  and  dusty 
steps — beyond  my  power  of  numbering — and  I  was  away, 
scampering  over  graves,  to  an  abutment  of  the  churchyard 
to  climb  and  to  bestride  a  cannon  from  Sebastopol,  and 
strain  my  eyes  across  the  Firth  and  away  to  the  south-east, 
to  catch  a  glimpse  of  Edinburgh  Castle. 

But  the  rollicking  took  far  less  classic  turns  than  that. 
Think,  for  instance,  of  the  snow.  How  it  descended 
on  the  cold,  grey,  slushy,  slippery  town,  and  re- 
inspirited  us  by  its  supply  of  ammunition  !  From  an 
entry,  as  from  a  fortification,  a  bombardment  took  place. 
Dunfermline  in  those  days  was  a  labyrinth  of  closes,  the 
strategic  possibilities  of  which  I  had  studied  with  care. 
The  citizen  who  gave  chase  came  to  grief  or  got  lost;  but 
by  that  time  I  was  sitting  at  my  mother's  knee  safe  in  the 
reading-parlour  and  "  hearing  clever  men  talk." 

Her,  so  long  as  there  was  nothing  really  bad  in  it,  I 
took  for  an  ally.  I  once  heard  her  spirited  rejoinder  to 
a  friend,  who  offered  her  sympathy  about  a  boy  who  got 
into  scrapes  and  out  again  so  often  :  "  Rather,"  said  my 
mother,  "  rather  a  coal  than  a  clod." 

Ever  your  affectionate 

PARENT. 


LETTER    V 

SCHOOLS    AND    THE    LAW 

Craigmyle. 

August  15,  1919. 
ISABEL  DEAR, 

Here  is  a  memory  which  after  sixty-four  years  remains 
ineffaceable.  It  is  a  school  scene;  and  if  you  can  see  its 
connexion  with  education,  you  are  the  clever  one. 

Education  was  a  passion  with  my  father  and  mother. 
He  died,  alas !  when  I  was  in  my  sixth  year,  and  I 
remember  that  he  was  alive  when  this  occurred.  I  had  to 
be  at  school  at  the  fixed  hour  of  nine  in  the  morning.  I 
must  frankly  tell  you  that,  like  all  the  rules  of  my  youth 
(they  were  certainly  good  rules),  breach  meant  punish- 
ment. There  was  an  unerring  precision  about  that,  which 
left  me  no  doubts  about  the  reign  of  law !  To  fend  off 
the  consequences  by  either  untruth  or  concealment  or 
evasion  :  somehow  that  did  not  come  within  one's  range ; 
perhaps  the  consequences  of  exposure  would  have  been 
too  awful.  So  nothing  was  left  for  me  but  to  try  to  drive 
a  bargain. 

Armed,  accordingly,  with  an  apple,  I  faced  the  foe. 
I  remember  yet  climbing  the  school  stair  and  entering  the 
upper  room. 

"  Mr.  Gellet,"  said  I,  "  I'm  ower  late;  but  if  you  don't 
give  me  the  tawse,  then  I'll  give  you  that  big,  bonny,  red- 
cheeked  apple !  " 

19 


20  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

"  All  right,  Tom,"  said  he — as  I  thought  very  solemnly 
— and  he  accepted  the  apple  and  placed  it  on  his  desk. 

The  thing  would  have  faded  from  my  mind  but  for 
this — to  me — extraordinary  circumstance,  that  he  broke 
his  bargain.  At  the  end  of  the  school  hours  he  gave  me 
my  apple  back  !  When  the  worthy  teacher  called  in  the 
evening,  I  heard  splutterings  of  laughter  in  the  home 
circle,  which  mystified  rather  than  mortified  me. 

After  this  Infant  School — for  I  had  been  sent  to  school 
at  three,  I  was  so  restless — came  the  High  School  of 
Dunfermline. 

The  time  I  speak  of  was,  of  course,  long  before  the 
passing  of  the  famous  Scotch  Education  Act  of  1872, 
which  set  up  School  Boards  in  every  burgh  and  parish 
in  the  Kingdom.  In  one  sense  this  was  a  mere  matter  of 
administration,  namely,  as  I  have  said,  the  setting  up  of 
an  elected  Board;  for  in  every  burgh  and  parish  there 
had  already  and  for  long  been  a  schoolhouse  and  school 
teacher,  and  the  ideals  of  Knox  had  never  failed.  This 
is  literally  so,  and  among  their  results  is  an  outstanding 
fact :  the  passion  for  education  was  the  ideal,  and  the 
uses  of  it  for  the  main  chance  in  life  was  the  practical 
side  of  the  affair  to  the  Scotch  mind. 

My  mother — shrewdness  itself — used  to  say  to  me  : 

"  It's  but  little  of  this  world's  gear  that  you'll  get  from 
me,  but  I  would  like  to  give  you  the  best  education  that 
that  head  of  yours  will  hold." 

So  I  went  to  the  High  School  of  the  town,  which  had 
a  headmaster  who  received  a  house,  £  100  a  year — an  old 
burgh  foundation — and  our  school  fees,  as  his  reward. 
He  was  of  diminutive  stature,  but  of  more  than  average 
intelligence,  and  faithful  to  his  task.  More  by  my 


SCHOOLS   AND  THE   LAW  21 

mother's  influence  than  his,  and  possibly  from  a  spirit  of 
emulation,  I  plodded  through  an  elementary  course.  The 
schoolbooks  were  bald  and  uninteresting;  in  nothing  edu- 
cational has  there  been  more  advance  than  in  this  vital 
matter,  the  production  of  good  schoolbooks. 

There  came  in  time,  on  top  of  the  three  Rs,  a  sound 
course  of  Euclid — taken  in  the  raw — with  some  Algebra 
thrown  in,  and  a  smattering  of  Latin  (grounding,  ground- 
ing, grounding,  in  Ruddiman's  Rudiments),  less  French 
and  no  Greek.  Thus  poorly  equipped,  I  stood  my  ex- 
amination, and  remember,  in  a  kind  of  dazed  way — I  was 
just  over  thirteen — getting  the  Town  Council  medal — a 
fat  bit  of  silver  with  a  broad  blue  ribbon — hung  round 
my  neck  by  the  Provost  of  the  day,  with  a  kindly  word. 
Then  I  rebelled  :  I  declined  to  go  back  to  school  because 
it  would  be  mean  to  compete  again  for  the  Dux  place. 
What  was  to  be  done  ? 

Thus  there  arose  the  first  educational  puzzle  which  I 
really  took  stock  of  as  a  thing  to  be  solved,  if  I  could,  in 
later  days — the  puzzle  of  the  educational  ladder.  There 
was  no  real  secondary  school  within  our  ken  short  of 
Edinburgh — and  Edinburgh  was  distant  three  hours  by 
coach  or  rail :  for  nobody,  so  far  as  I  know,  had  then 
even  dreamed  of  bridging  the  Forth.  Dollar  had  a  good 
school,  called  an  Academy,  but  there  was  no  connexion 
with  it  by  train.  Either  Edinburgh  or  Dollar  meant  that 
I  had  to  be  boarded  and  lodged  away  from  home,  with 
the  educational  fees  and  expenses  on  top.  The  latter  my 
mother  might  have  stood,  but  the  former  was  not  to  her 
liking — she  would  not  part  with  her  boy. 

For  the  same  reason,  and  also  because  she  was  too 
independent  in  her  views,  she  refused  the  offer  of  a  friend 


22  LETTERS  TO  ISABEL 

in  Banbury  to  adopt  me  and  send  me,  after  some  more 
schooling,  to  Oxford  University.  Did  I  want  to  go  to 
sea?  There  was  an  Inverkeithing  captain  offering  to 
take  me  on,  and  under  his  own  friendly  eye,  to  his  own 
Baltic  and  coasting  boat.  No;  it  was  of  no  use;  she 
would  not  part  with  her  boy. 

It  turned  out  that  all  the  time  she  had  had  her  own 
ideas.  I  had  none.  I  had  no  preferences  for  any  par- 
ticular line  of  life — none  whatsoever.  So  she  chose,  and 
she  chose  the  law !  These  vacations — of  trampings  to 
the  sea,  and  trampings  to  the  trout  burns  in  the  Ochil 
Hills — these  vacations  were  too  long;  so  I  was  taken  into 
counsel :  we  used  to  discuss  things  together  till  early 
morning  hours. 

"  I  think,  Tom,"  said  she,  "  that  you  should  turn  your 
attention  to  the  law." 

"What's  the  law?  "said  I. 

"  Oh,"  she  says,  with  a  twinkle  in  her  eyes,  "  somebody 
asks  your  opinion  and  you  tell  him  :  and  then  you  send 
in  your  account  and  say :  '  The  charge  for  this  is  five 
shillings.'  " 

So  no  educational  ladder  for  me.  I  could  only  grope 
back  to  it  a  few  years  after.  I  should  tell  you,  dear,  that 
I  had  tried  to  get  into  a  bank,  but,  thanks  be  to  a  wise 
Providence,  I  had  failed.  I  was  too  small  of  stature ! 
How  could  the  British  Linen  Company  be  served  by  a 
dwarf?  A  school  companion  was  chosen,  a  fine,  quiet 
fellow,  six  feet  high.  He  remained  there  in  the  same 
room  of  the  same  bank,  and  probably  at  the  same  desk, 
for  forty  years,  and  then  he  died,  his  maximum  salary 
probably  never  over  '£  100. 

So  behold  your  paternal  relative  on  a  high  stool  in  the 


SCHOOLS   AND  THE   LAW  23 

office  of  a  high-minded,  but  high-tempered,  solicitor !  I 
simply  had  to  grow  up.  And  grow  I  did,  like  the  sturdiest 
of  saplings.  We  banked  at  the  British  Linen,  the  office 
that  refused  me,  and  I  remember  well  the  agent  taking  a 
squint  at  me  as  I  went  in  from  time  to  time;  it  seemed 
to  me  that  -it  was  rather  insulting  to  him  that  I  should  be 
growing  at  the  rate  of  about  an  inch  a  fortnight ! 

Good-bye,  then,  educational  ladder;  good-bye  for  the 
present. 

"  But,  Father,"  I  hear  you  say,  "  what  about  the  hearth 
and  home  talk  that  you  sometimes  speak  of  ?  " 

Well,  my  dear,  one  thing  at  a  time.    That  is  another 

story. 

Ever  your  loving 

FATHER. 


LETTER    VI 

BEFORE    THE    BALLOT 

Craigmyle, 

September  30,  1919. 
MY  DEAR  ISABEL, 

The  entire  railway  traffic  of  the  country  is  under  the 
arrest  of  a  strike.  It  carries  my  mind  back  to  the  con- 
ditions and  hours  of  labour  half  a  century  ago. 

As  a  boy  I  stood  watching  one  of  the  early  processions 
of  miners,  gathered  to  hear  a  leader  of  that  day  named 
McDonald.  It  was  not  what  was  said,  but  what  I  saw, 
which  was  stamped  upon  my  mind. 

The  men  were  nearly  all  under  middle  age,  and  the 
revolting  fact  was  this  :  that,  as  it  appeared  to  me,  at 
least  one  in  three  of  these  men  bore,  in  his  own  person 
— in  gait,  in  figure,  or  in  face — the  traces  of  bodily  injury. 
Now  it  was  the  "  hirpling  "  walk  caused  by  a  fractured 
limb  imperfectly  repaired;  again  it  was  that  twisted  and 
high-shouldered  formation  of  the  body  which  comes  of 
extreme  labour  in  a  thin  seam  when  the  workman  plies  his 
pick  horizontally.  And  over  and  over  again  "  the  human 
face  divine  "  had  been  gashed  open  and  was  seared  by  a 
deep  blue  scar. 

People  raged  against  the  wild  things  that  were  said 
at  these  meetings;  savage  demands,  if  you  will,  but  for 
better  and  more  human  conditions  of  life.  I  forgot  these, 
but  the  pictures  remained.  And  many,  many  times  when 

24 


BEFORE  THE   BALLOT  25 

Statutes  of  Parliament  like  "  Mines  Regulations  Acts  " 
have  been  proposed,  or  under  interpretation,  I  seem  to 
have  seen  again,  away  beyond  the  green  benches  of  the 
Commons  or  the  red  benches  of  the  Lords,  that  dolorous 
tableau  vivant — the  men  maimed  in  form  and  marred  in 
visage,  in  whose  cases  sacrifice  and  suffering  seemed 
Labour's  inevitable  portion. 

Forgive  me,  dear,  bringing  this  before  you.  But  when 
you  hear  round  condemnations  of  men  like  the  miner, 
remember  the  past.  It  was  as  I  have  described  it.  Notable 
changes,  enormous  ameliorations,  have  taken  place,  for 
which  one  is  filled  with  a  great  thankfulness.  But  the 
memory  of  men  is  tenacious,  and  the  bitterness  of  to-day's 
controversies  may  be  in  part  owing  to  recollections  of 
acute  and  undeserved  miseries.  You  are  old  enough  to 
reckon  these  things  up  for  yourself;  but,  when  you  do  so, 
give  play  to  the  historical  sense — it  teaches  us  to  make 
allowances. 

As  to  hours  of  labour — ha !  The  fact  is  that  we  are 
living  in  a  different  world.  It  seems  odd  to  make  a 
lawyer's  clerk's  hours  a  general  measure,  but  I  do  believe 
that  it  is  good  enough  at  that.  From  9.30  to  8,  and  on 
Saturdays  till  i ;  short  intervals  for  meals ;  roughly  speak- 
ing, a  fifty-five  hours  week.  But  overtime !  There  was 
the  rub.  Just  before  the  curfew  sounded  I  was  often 
summoned  up  and  the  evening's  extra  work  began.  This 
lasted  variously  till  9  or  10,  or,  in  extreme  cases,  till  2 
and  even  3  in  the  morning.  And  no  pay.  Reward — that 
I  was  learning  my  business. 

Was  this  slavery  ?  Not  at  all — not  at  all.  The  reason 
for  which  is  that  during  the  years  when  the  work  was  the 
most  severe  I  was  under  a  master  whom  I  respected  and 


26  LETTERS  TO  ISABEL 

revered;  and  as  his  amanuensis  I  saw  the  workings  of  an 
alert,  a  highly  principled,  and  a  well-cultured  mind.  It 
is  the  old  story :  "  The  labour  we  delight  in  physics 
pain." 

To  show  you,  however,  what  we  should  now  call  the 
drudgery  side  of  it,  consider  this.  It  is  quite  remarkable 
— the  changes  in  such  an  apparently  little  matter  as  the 
expression  and  transmission  of  thought.  This  applies  to 
the  mechanism  of  every  office  in  the  kingdom.  Letters 
or  documents  are  dictated  and  the  author  is  a  free  man 
for  other  work.  His  words  are  stenographed,  typed, 
booked  by  press;  the  mechanics  of  the  operation  are 
accurate  and  swift.  Then  we  wrote  to  dictation  in  long- 
hand, and  we  booked  the  letters  also  in  long-hand — witness 
the  great  fat  letter-books,  those  cruel  devourers  of  time. 
When  press-copying  was  introduced  it  was  an  innovation, 
a  labour-saving  apparatus,  and  wiseacres — not  knaves  nor 
fools,  but  simply  wiseacres — shook  their  heads.  Laugh- 
able. 

#  *  #  *  # 

Could  the  spirit  of  exhilaration  or  of  fun  enter  into 
such  a  life?  Yet  it  did.  Think  of  the  roaring  time  at 
elections — the  concocting  of  political  squibs,  the  fine 
rampagiousness  of  manoeuvring  or  disturbing  a  political 
meeting.  I  remember  well,  in  the  years  1866-7,  we  were 
agents  for  Mr.  Ramsay,  an  estimable  Whig.  The  oppo- 
nent was  a  spruce,  well-groomed  Radical  out  of  a 
Tory  nest,  by  name  Mr.  Henry  Campbell,  afterwards 
Sir  Henry  Campbell-Bannerman.  The  nerve  of  every 
man  and  boy  in  the  establishment  was  strained  for  his 
undoing. 


27 

I  broke  hours.  It  was  a  duty,  for  had  I  not  to  clamber 
into  the  front  seat  of  the  gallery  of  the  Music  Hall  and 
represent  public  opinion?  A  Mr.  Thomas  Morrison,  a 
shoemaker,  orator  and  ex-Chartist  (uncle,  by  the  way,  of 
Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie,  the  millionaire),  held  forth  after 
Mr.  Campbell  had  spoken.  He  made  an  astonishing 
prognostication,  which  was  rapturously  received  by  the 
Campbellites,  but  was  greeted  with  a  pandemonium  of 
derision  by  the  Ramsayites,  a  derision  in  which  my  vocal 
powers  nearly  brought  me  into  notice  from  the  Chair.  The 
prognostication  was  that  the  candidate  would  one  day  be 
Prime  Minister  of  England  !  A  good  laugh  Sir  Henry 
had  when  I  told  him  the  story  five-and-thirty  years  after- 
wards, at  10,  Downing  Street.  I  think  you  have  heard  him 
chaffing  me  about  it  yourself. 

By  the  way,  there  was  a  curious  circumstance  there. 
We  beat  Mr.  Campbell.  He,  however,  saw  that  a  wider 
electorate  was  on  the  eve  of  enfranchisement,  and  he  held 
on.  The  Reform  Act  of  1867  was  passed;  and  he  then 
beat  us.  And  he  retained  the  seat  for  the  remainder  of 
his  life — forty  years. 

Of  course,  until  the  Ballot  Act  was  passed  the  chances 
of  not  a  little  "  enjoyment "  remained.  In  the  county 
we  acted  for  Sir  Robert  Anstruther,  and  he  had  a  body 
of  notably  keen  supporters.  Let  me  give  you  an  instance 
of  what  went  on.  In  the  polling  booth  the  Sheriff  was 
presiding  officer,  and  on  either  side  of  him  was  seated  a 
representative  of  each  candidate,  whose  duty  was  to  mark 
off  each  vote  from  the  list  before  him,  and  to  pass  out 
the  results  to  a  committee  outside.  I  was  Sir  Robert's 
representative  and  witnessed  the  scene. 

One  of  the  "  incidents,"  you  see,  which  the  free  and 


28  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

independent  elector  had  to  face  was  that  within  a  few 
minutes  of  his  having  done  his  duty  to  his  country  it  was 
known  not  only  that  he  had  voted,  but  how  he  had  voted, 
and  he  was  greeted  or  treated  accordingly,  and  on  the 
spot.  There  were  happenings  afterwards  also — but  that 
is  another  matter. 

So  the  door  was  suddenly  opened,  and  from  the  hubbub 
outside  there  was  thrust — visibly  shoved — into  the  room 
Laird  So-and-so,  a  quite  notorious  drunkard.  He  had 
been  primed  in  every  way,  but  principally  on  the  name 
of  the  candidate;  that  name  was  the  compend  and  the 
stamp  of  everything  in  Church  and  State  that  had  to  be 
voted  for.  In  fact,  so  well  had  it  been  dinned  into  him, 
and  so  often  had  he  repeated  it,  that  he  could  not  say 
anything  else. 

He  accordingly  balanced  himself  carefully,  reached  the 
desk,  and  to  the  Sheriff's  courteous  inquiry,  "  What  is 
your  name  ?. "  he  made  the  prompt  and  astonishing  answer, 
"  Sir  Robert  Anstruther." 

"  I  am  not  wanting  the  name  of  a  candidate,"  said 
the  Sheriff,  "  but  your  own  name.  What  is  your  name, 
please  ? " 

The  Laird  balanced  himself  with  dignity  and  eyed 
the  Sheriff  up  and  down,  evidently  wondering  what  game 
he  was  up  to.  Nothing  else  but  the  candidate's  name 
was  in  the  programme.  And  so,  to  the  question  again 
repeated  : 

"What  is  your  name,  sir?"  he  again  replied  with 
determination : 

"  Sir  Robert  Anstruther." 

His  political  convictions  were  not  to  be  shaken.  He 
was  removed  by  the  police.  In  a  couple  of  hours  he  was 


BEFORE  THE   BALLOT  29 

back,  but  he  had  been  better  drilled.     He  gave  his  name 
and  voted  straight,  and  was  received  outside  with  cheers. 
Things    are    duller    now.      The    ballot    came,    and    the 
drunkard  lost  his  double  chance. 
Jolly  old  British  Constitution  ! 

Yours  ever  and  aye, 

S.  OF  D. 


LETTER   VII 

TWO    STEPS    AT    A  TIME 

Craigmyle. 

October  10,   1919. 
MY  DEAR  TRUANT, 

I  sometimes  really  do  think  about  you  and  remember 
my  promise.  But  on  these  glorious  days  the  partridges 
— have  they  not? — have  the  first  claim. 

Anything  more  about  the  lawyer's  apprentice?  Not 
a  word  more.  It  would  bore  you.  I  have  no  memory  for 
stodge.  Stodge,  however,  is  the  anvil  of  application.  And 
the  habit  of  application,  again,  is  the  making  of  mental 
muscle.  The  strain  upon  my  slender  equipment  of  that 
was  coming. 

After  a  year  or  two  I  came  to  see  that  the  walls  of  a 
solicitor's  office  were  too  narrow  for  the  kind  of  life  I 
wished  to  live.  The  rebel  in  me  broke  loose,  and  I  thought 
of  the  Bar. 

Why  then  not  go,  and  go  at  once?  Halt  a  bit.  To 
the  Bar  was  a  very  adventurous  jump.  The  solicitor's 
life  was  narrow,  but  it  was  a  living;  the  barrister's  life 
might  be  no  living  at  all,  and  I  might  have  to  drop 
back  into  being  a  solicitor  after  all.  I  could  not  afford 
to  have  any  nonsense  in  my  head  about  carrying  all  before 
me.  So  then,  in  order  to  be  a  solicitor,  I  had  to  complete 
my  indenture.  Complete  it,  therefore,  I  did,  thus  leaving 
that  avenue  open  if  the  other  speculation  should  fail. 

30 


TWO  STEPS   AT  A  TIME  31 

But  if  I  went  to  the  Bar,  I  must  at  least  try  to  go  on 
even  terms — have  degrees  both  in  Arts  and  in  Law,  and 
be  "  respected  like  the  lave."  Alas !  the  blessed  educa- 
tional ladder  !  I  had  lost  hold  of  it  for  four  years ;  hence 
I  must  mount  two  steps  at  a  time,  and  take  the  two 
curricula  together — compress  seven  years'  work  into  four. 
This  was  done;  but  I  was  a  galley-slave. 

Of  the  true  aroma  of  University  life  I  was  never, 
until  the  last  year  of  it,  fully  sensible,  and  no  real  justice 
could  be  done  to  either  course.  Yet  on  the  one  hand  I 
may  have  been  fortified  in  habits  of  endurance  already 
formed,  while  on  the  other  it  may  have  tightened  up  a 
certain  tenacity  of  purpose.  Endurance  and  tenacity. 
Scotland  demands  these  of  her  sons. 

As  bearing  upon  them,  here  is  a  curious  circumstance. 
You  have  heard  many  discussions  about  the  advantages 
of  compulsory  Greek.  Well,  Greek  was  compulsory  in 
those  days;  no  degree  without  it.  So  here  was  a  youth 
of  19  or  20  who  had  no  Greek — not  a  word,  not  a  letter 
of  it.  What  was  to  be  done?  Only  one  thing.  I  left 
the  office  in  July;  on  the  ist  of  August  I  bought  a  Greek 
grammar,  and  within  three  months  I  had  matriculated 
(make  no  mistake,  there  was  no  examination  for  that  privi- 
lege then  !),  and  I  was  in  the  Greek  classes. 

There  I  was,  sitting  on  the  University  benches,  listen- 
ing with  amazement  to  the  prelections  of  Professor  Blackie 
— on  everything  in  general,  with  a  preference  for  Scotch, 
and  a  little  Greek  by  the  way.  Dear,  nimble-witted, 
lovable  man !  And  at  the  appointed  eighteen  months 
afterwards  I  "  scraped  through "  my  classics  for  the 
degree. 

A  perfect  travesty  of  education;  a  cast-iron  system. 


32  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

Had  there  been  the  alternative  of  a  modern  language, 
I  might  have  been  making  use  of  that  all  my  life,  instead 
of  laying  to  one  side  and  for  ever  that  glorious  dead! 
language  which  I  had  never  got  the  length  of  loving  for 
its  own  sake. 

Yet  we  had  had  Blackie  :  and  Blackie  —  the  alert,  the 
handsome  professor,  with  the  noble  head  of  snowy  hair 
—  was  an  exhilaration.  Often,  too,  he  had  the  comforting 
word  and  he  drew  us  out.  Once  I  was  encouraged  by 
him  when  he  looked  over  a  rendering  in  English  verse 
of  one  of  ^Eschylus's  choruses  which  I  ventured  to  submit 
to  him.  He  had  a  real  turn  for  versification,  but  his  talent 
for  it  went  to  seed.  For  instance,  this  :  Imagine  150  young 
men  watching  his  gesticulations  as  he  shouted  : 

"  There,  there,  there,  there,  there,  there,  there! 
God  bless  Tom  and  his  whalebone  wigf  !  " 

So  much  for  compulsory  Greek. 

With  Latin  one  did  —  as  why  not  under  a  scholar  like 
Sellar?  —  one  did  get  a  little  farther.  Yet  the  stage  of 
real  facility  in  the  iise  of  the  language  was  never  reached  ; 
and  my  impression  is  that  this  was  the  case  with  the  over- 
whelming majority  of  students  who  left  the  Scotch  Univer- 
sities during  that  generation.  How  is  it  in  your  day? 


On  the  literature  of  it,  especially  on  the  Augustan 
poets,  Sellar  was  really  inspiring.  The  memory  retains, 
curiously,  only  three  outstanding  points,  two  of  style  and 
one  of  content.  Carlyle  was  then  in  great  vogue  among 
us;  but  in  Tacitus  I  seemed  to  see  a  trenchant,  vivid  and 
compendious  strength  beside  which  Carlyle,  with  no  mean 
grip  of  these  qualities,  appeared  almost  vaporous.  At 


TWO   STEPS   AT  A  TIME  33 

the  other  end  of  the  scale,  it  was  the  delicate  grace  of 
Cicero's  letters  to  Atticus  that  came  like  a  far-away  yet 
effective  rebuke  to  that  rawness  and  abruptness  which  are 
the  curse  of  Scottish  youth. 

Then  the  third  had  content  in  it  as  well  as  style;  it 
was  Cicero's  "  -pro  Cluentio"  The  merits  of  the  case  are 
no  matter;  but  many  a  time  and  oft  in  the  course  of  a  legal 
and  parliamentary  life  I  have  remembered  how  a  great 
solid  portion  of  the  famous  address  was  dedicated  to  the 
removal  from  the  jurors'  minds  of  "  invidia"  Invidia — 
prejudice  for  or  prejudice  against — invidia — never  forget 
this,  dear — invidia  is  the  foe  of  fair  judgment.  It  has 
sent  the  innocent  often  and  often  to  the  gallows  or  the 
stake;  and,  from  the  great  scale  of  former  days  to  the 
petty  scale  of  milder  times,  it  has  dealt  out  ostracism  and 
martyrdom  with  a  callous  mind.  Within  the  circle  of  the 
law  it  is  still  to  be  found.  Human  nature  is  so  constituted 
that  in  quarters  of  the  brain  both  of  judge  and  of  jury 
it's  embers  may  lie  ready  for  the  stirring;  but  the  art  of 
advocacy  is  never  higher  than  when  the  herculean  task 
is  undertaken  in  a  cause  debauched  by  public  innuendo 
to  remove  prejudice  from  the  mind  of  a  jury  or  from  the 
mind  of  a  judge,  over  whom,  much  more  than  over  a  jury, 
"  invidia  "  has  a  strong  and  a  subtle  hold.  I  have  often 
thought  about  this,  and  I  speak  from  a  long  experience. 

But  I  weary  you.  Only  remember — beware  of  invidia. 
It  is,  as  I  say,  the  foe  of  fair  judgment.  Well,  Cicero,  in 
his  "  pro  Cluentio"  was  the  first  to  teach  me  this  lesson. 

Have  I  talked  like  a  professor?    I  hope  not,  truly. 

Your  very  own 

TRUE  LOVE. 


LETTER   VIII 

THE    THREE    ROADS.     WHICH? 

Craigmyle. 

October  14,  1919. 

MY  DEARLY  BELOVED   LASS, 

We  were  to  motor  all  the  way  to  the  great  Babylon, 
and  were  proposing  to  start  this  morning.  But  all  our 
plans  are  upset.  So  what  to  do  ?  Whip  up  another  recol- 
lection or  two  of  the  student  days,  and  write  you  another 
letter?  So  be  it. 

Of  all  the  professors,  Masson  was  the  prince.  The 
mark  of  everything  he  did  was  conscientious  thoroughness. 
He  had  no  antipathy  to  modernity  of  style,  for  he  had  the 
feeling  of  movement  which  comes  from  the  historical  sense 
and  the  open  mind.  Mostly  he  plodded,  and  you  could 
not  but  respect  his  sureness  of  foot.  But  when  he  soared, 
as  he  sometimes  did,  it  was  no  mere  flutter,  but  like  the 
lift  of  a  great  aeroplane,  where  everything  awes  you,  even 
the  pulsing  of  the  engines.  When  he  reached  the  Eliza- 
bethans the  large  class-room  filled  up  and  up;  and  his 
three  lectures  on  Shakespeare  drew  his  former  pupils  back 
to  mingle  with  their  successors  on  the  crowded  benches, 
and  to  quaff  once  again  the  old  inspiration.  It  quite 
maddened  me  to  realize  that  I  was  only  able  to  give  to 
Masson  the  mere  scraps  of  my  ,time. 

But  I  remembered  and  I  practised  one  of  his 
rules.  That  rule  has,  I  feel  convinced,  enriched  many 

34 


THE  THREE   ROADS.    WHICH?          35 

a  life.  It  was  something  like  this  :  "  When  anything 
strikes  you  in  a  great  poet,  mark  the  passage  down 
and  learn  it  if  you  can  by  heart.  If  you  do  that  it 
will  go  with  you  to  the  end  of  the  world.  It  will  become 
part  of  yourself.  That  is  culture."  In  my  own  case,  as 
in  the  case  of  a  whole  generation,  this  grave  and  simple 
and  by  no  means  recondite  lesson  has  been  a  veritable 
well-spring  of  joy. 

I  must  pull  up.  The  four  years  drew  to  an  end. 
But,  you  ask,  what  was  the  student  life  like?  My 
dear,  there  was  no  student  life.  Those  who  came  from 
beyond  Edinburgh  lived  in  lodgings,  alone,  or  two  or 
three  in  the  same  house.  The  life  was  severe,  the  loneli- 
ness sometimes  hard  to  bear.  There  was  no  College 
refectory,  no  common  room,  no  Students'  Union.  In  the 
lodging,  it  almost  seems  to  me  at  this  distance  of  time, 
that  the  piece  de  resistance  of  the  six  o'clock  dinner  was 
on  four  days  of  the  week  a  steak  and  on  three  days  of 
the  week  a  chop.  Sometimes,  I  confess,  it  was  a  piece  de 
resistance — in  more  senses  than  one. 

Yet  why  complain  ?  Were  we  not  conscious  that  many 
others  of  our  fellow-students  rarely  saw  butcher  meat? 
Men  of  stalwart  bearing,  and  nerves  and  muscle  of  iron  : 
oatmeal  was  their  staple  diet;  and  they  grew  masters  of 
themselves,  learning  to  "  scorn  delights  and  live  laborious 
days."  Some  tutored  in  families,  struggling  to  make  ends 
meet,  and  some  succumbed,  their  purses  drained  by  the 
payment  of  fees,  and  they  sickened  and  died. 

I  rejoice  that  the  life  of  the  poor  student  is  now  in- 
finitely happier,  infinitely  more  human.  I  love  the  poor 
student.  He  is  of  earth's  best. 

This  loneliness,  this  segregation  of  young  manhood, 


36  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

produced  curious  results.  Not  meeting  one  another  ex- 
cept in  the  somewhat  formal  atmosphere  of,  it  might  be, 
a  debating  society,  where  the  only  big  tussles  were  on 
points  of  order,  the  students  got  no  advantage  of  "  iron 
sharpening  iron."  They  wanted  to  be  independent : 
yet  what  they  were  taught  was  no  matter  of  debate; 
they  followed  the  professor  like  sheep  through  a 
gate. 

Yet,  as  I  say,  they  wanted  to  be  independent.  Of  this 
I  will  give  you  an  instance.  About  the  end  of  my  curri- 
culum I  became,  if  you  please,  Assistant  Professor  of 
Ethics  (I  hope  your  mind  is  sufficiently  solemnized !), 
and  I  delivered  a  short  course  of  lectures  to,  say, 
seventy  students.  In  the  course  of  examining  some 
problem,  I  said :  '  Upon  this  point  I  differ  from  the 
Professor." 

You  should  have  heard  the  gasp,  and  then  a  storm  of 
cheers  enough  to  blow  the  roof  off.  Nobody  in  all  their 
experience — and  they  were  in  their  last  Arts  year — had 
ever  ventured  to  differ  from  a  Professor.  And  here  they 
were,  asked  to  sit  in  judgment  on  a  difference  between 
a  Professor  and  a  Lecturer.  The  fun  of  it ! 

At  the  next  examination  they  gave  the  good  man  value 
for  his  money.  And  he  was  a  good  man  was  Dr.  Calder- 
wood — a  capital  teacher,  expositor,  debater.  He  said  to 
me  :  "  What's  in  the  heads  of  these  fellows  ?  Most  of  them 
are  saying  that  I  am  wrong.  Where  did  they  get  that  ?  " 
"  I  am  afraid,"  said  I,  "  they  got  it  from  me  !  "  "  Oh, 
that's  it,"  said  he,  and  he  laughed  loud  and  long;  and  then 
he  added  :  "  Now,  you  know,  that  is  first-rate ;  they  have 
all  been  working  this  thing  out.  It  is  teaching  them  to 
think  for  themselves."  And  I  can  guarantee  that  none 


THE   THREE   ROADS.     WHICH?         37 

of  them  suffered  one  whit  in  their  awarded  values  for 
differing  from  the  Professor. 

The  fact  was  that  philosophy  was  hitting  me  rather 
hard;  I  was  reading  myself  nearly  blind  with  a  great 
variety  of  stuff,  revelling  in  Jowett's  Plato,  moved  beyond 
belief  with,  say,  the  "  Apologia  "  and  the  later  books  of 
the  "  Republic,"  passing  along,  and  possibly  more  hit  by 
Leibnitz  than  any  of  the  others — and  landing  and  stand- 
ing long  on  Kant — pure  reason,  categorical  imperative, 
and  all  the  rest  of  it — and  having  as  a  working  guide  a 
wonderful  little  History  of  Philosophy  by  Schwegler. 

After  a  killing  examination  a  fellowship  of  ^300 
came  my  way.  And  here  is  an  odd  thing.  The  Fellow- 
ship was  founded  in  memory  of  Sir  William  Hamilton. 
But  among  the  things  that  most  stimulated  me  in  these 
studies  was  the  Examination  of  that  same  Hamilton's 
Philosophy  by  John  Stuart  Mill — a  clever,  penetrating 
book  (one  need  not  agree  with  all  of  it),  in  which  Hamilton 
is  vigorously  reduced  to  mince-meat.  I  don't  think  a  word 
was  asked  about  Hamilton  "  of  pious  memory  " ;  but,  if 
there  had  been,  I  was  no  doubt  prepared  to  attack  him  on 
Mill's  lines. 

It  almost  looked  as  if  I  were  going  to  be  a  professor. 
Had  I  ambitions  in  that  direction?  I  had  no  ambitions 
whatsoever.  I  had  distractions — distractions  as  to  how  I 
was  to  earn  my  living.  There  were  rivals  to  philosophy 
in  the  field.  Here  was  one. 

In  those  days  the  Lord  Rector  of  a  Scotch  University 
was  a  person  of  distinction  in  the  world  of  scholarship  or 
letters,  and  the  practice  of  making  these  students'  elec- 
tions a  political  battle  was  not  so  common.  Great  names 
there  had  been  among  the  rectors,  and  the  recollections  of 


38  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

men  were  still  fresh  of  the  great  addresses  of  Glad- 
stone, of  Carlyle,  and  of  Froude.  In  such  a  class  and 
rank  Sir  William  Stirling  Maxwell  was  deservedly 
placed. 

One  of  the  first  things  he  did  was  to  offer  a  Rectorial 
prize  on  "  the  causes  which  prevented  the  Spanish- Ameri- 
can dominions  from  being  a  source  of  wealth  and  power 
to  Spain."  Here  was  an  encouragement  to  research.  Not 
research  in  general,  on  which  so  much  vague  sentiment 
is  expended,  but  specific  research,  research  on  a  prescribed 
topic. 

Students,  "  researchers,"  inquiring  and  willing  young 
fellows,  by  the  scores  and  by  the  hundreds,  not  having  a 
specific  and  commanding  lead,  not  being  told  what  to  do 
and  where  to  go,  simply  roam  about  the  vast  open  fields, 
say,  of  literature,  of  history,  or  of  science;  grow  stale; 
and  reach  nowhere.  It  was  so  then ;  it  is  so  still.  A  dozen 
of  such  exercises — essays  in  the  true  sense  of  being  inde- 
pendent efforts  of  the  mind  and  faculty — a  dozen  of  such 
in  each  University  would  do  more  for  the  intellect  of 
students  than  all  the  lectures  of  twice  a  dozen  professors. 
Would  that  not  suit  University  authorities?  And  is  that 
why  they  are  so  slow  in  this  direction?  Perish  the 
thought ! 

Anyhow,  I  can  judge  by  what  Maxwell  did.  His 
rectorial  problem  set  a  band  of  us  nosing  around — in 
economics,  in  history  and  in  theories  of  government,  and 
we  saw  country  which  we  might  never  have  seen  but 
for  the  coveted  distinction — and  the  five-and-twenty 
guineas  ! 

It  was  no  slight  thing  to  have  to  dive  deep  into  Adam 
Smith  and  to  feel  the  sweep  of  the  eloquent  impressionist 


THE  THREE   ROADS.     WHICH?          39 

view  of  Spanish  history  by  Buckle,  and  the  check  and 
sedative  of  such  a  writer  as  Sir  George  Cornewall 
Lewis  "  on  the  Government  of  Dependencies."  Such 
things  were  the  beginnings,  too,  of  new  thoughts  as  to 
public  life;  for  if  history  and  economics  be  not  the  prime 
equipment  of  the  politician,  what  are? 

"  But,"  I  think  I  hear  you  say,  "  you  were  going  to 
tell  me  what  the  rival  to  philosophy  was."  Forgive  me, 
dear,  for  wandering.  It  is  an  odious  thing  when  people, 
especially  fathers,  start  airing  their  "  views."  Well,  the 
result  of  the  rectorial  affair  was  that  Masson,  one  of  the 
examiners,  sent  me  down  to  Professor  Baynes,  then  edit- 
ing the  "  Britannica."  They  were  about  that  time  willing 
to  have  historical  matter,  and  so,  starting  with  the  buc- 
caneers, as  a  sort  of  branch  of  the  Spanish-American 
subject,  I  slid  into  the  regions  of  Scotch  and  French  bio- 
graphy. If  this  was  literature,  it  was  pretty  solid  stuff. 
Not  the  glorious  literature  which  has  been  woven  into  the 
texture  of  my  life,  as  you  within  the  circle  of  the  home 
have  known  it.  But — one  had  to  work,  and  one  had  to 
live. 

Yet  suddenly  in  this  grubbing  among  historical  matter 
a  great  light  would  shine.  What  a  gallery  it  was !  Des- 
moulins,  say,  and  Marat,  the  Rolands,  Talleyrand  and 
Vergniaud.  Of  all  these  Vergniaud,  the  Girondist  leader, 
most  impressed  the  imagination.  I  have  often  thought 
of  that  day  when  the  trial  of  the  illustrious  band  was 
summarily  stopped  lest  their  further  eloquence  should 
move  even  hearts  of  stone.  More  often  have  I  thought 
of  the  evening  of  that  day  when  Vergniaud  "  reasoned 
sublimely  "  on  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  ere  he  passed 
with  his  gifted  company — twenty-one  in  number — the 


40  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

flower  of  France — passed  with  them,  in  the  dawn,  to  the 
block. 

And  on  the  literary  side  this  curious  fact  stuck  in  the 
mind.  Over  and  over  again  in  the  life  and  testimony  of 
these  stormy  figures  you  saw  from  the  records  that  their 
revolutionary  ardour  had  been  fired  by  one  torch,  namely, 
the  writings  of  Plutarch.  As  if  thus,  across  the  centuries, 
Deep  were  calling  unto  Deep ! 

*  *  *  *  * 

Meantime,  where  was  the  law?  Well,  my  dear,  the 
classes  in  the  law  were  my  trade — taught  as  a  trade  and 
learned  as  a  trade.  I  make  no  pretence  to  remember 
anything  worth  uttering.  Jurisprudence,  serene,  splendid, 
the  august  image  of  ordered  rule  among  men  and  nations  : 
that  I  never  beheld,  even  in  vision,  in  all  my  College 
course.  Whirl  and  excitements,  examinations,  degrees,  a 
business  training,  and  ever  with  an  eye  on  the  finger  of 
the  clock.  Ah,  me !  Cares  and  responsibilities  there  are 
yet ;  and  they  are  heavy.  Ye;  how  dare  I  complain,  even 
in  memory  ? 

"  If  after  every  tempest  come  such  calms, 

May  the  winds  blow  till  they  have  wakened  death." 

One  other  rival  still.  Philosophy  and  literature  and 
law  seemed  suddenly  to  become  side  issues.  I  fell  in 
love  with  your  mother.  At  first  sight — and  for  ever.  I 
say  it  reverently  after  forty  years. 

But  how  could  I  ask  such  a  one  to  share  the  fortunes 
of  a  problematical,  philosophical  professor,  or  a  literary 
hack  ?  No  :  for  her  sake  it  must  be  the  law.  A  legend  of 
fair  women,  it  seemed  to  be.  The  hand  of  the  one  had 
led  me  through  the  humble  country  portal;  and  now  the 


THE  THREE   ROADS:     WHICH?          41 

hope  of  another  seemed  to  beckon  me  through  the 
metropolitan  gate. 

That  was  the  kind  of  impetuous,  fantastical,  distracted 
person  who  in  1875  entered  the  Edinburgh  Parliament 
House.  Friends,  acquaintances,  he  had  none,  either  on 
the  Bench  or  at  the  Bar. 

Tired  ?     I  don't  wonder.     Off  to  bed  ! 

Your  loving 

FATHER. 


LETTER    IX 

THROUGH   THE    METROPOLITAN    GATE 

I,  Palace  Gate. 

October  24,  1919. 
MY  DEAR  CHILD, 

Well !  here  I  am,  in  the  south  again,  and  in  the 
dear  old  library,  and  hoping  soon  to  see  your  very  own 
self, 

'  Whereunto  shall  I  liken  "  that  generation  of  lawyers 
who  then  trod  the  boards  of  the  old  historic  Parliament 
House  of  Scotland?  Like  every  other  generation,  it  was 
all  sorts  of  people.  What  thought  they,  for  instance,  of 
the  Parliament  House  itself?  The  plain  man  amongst 
them  thought  simply,  and  he  said  :  "  Fine  hall,  fine  roof, 
fine  floor,  and  on  the  walls  those  glorious  Raeburns !  }: 
The  wit  dubbed  it  the  "  salle  des  pas  perdus"  But  when 
the  enthusiast  would  venture  so  far  as  :  "  It  is  the  temple 
of  Themis  " — then  the  philistine  would  slide  in  with  : 
'  Themis,  did  you  say  ?  Not  Themis.  The  name  is 
Grundy.  Temple  of  Mrs.  Grundy." 

There  was  truth  with  all  of  these  gentlemen.  The 
law  had  a  solid  and  dignified  home.  The  trampings  of 
many  young  men  there  have  been  so  fruitless  !  And,  upon 
nearly  every  mother's  son  of  them,  convention  there  had  a 
narrowing  and  tyrannical  power.  Yet  withal,  justice  there 
was  sought  after,  was  veritably  worshipped.  Had  you  been 
there  and  asked  me  to  prove  this,  I  should  have  pointed 

42 


THROUGH  THE   METROPOLITAN   GATE     43 

you  to  two  figures,  strikingly  dissimilar  in  bodily  appear- 
ance, but  strikingly  alike  in  their  acquaintance  with  the 
development  of  the  law  and  their  loyalty  and  reverence 
to  that  which  underlies  it  and  is  deeper  and  nobler  than  all 
its  earthly  sanctions.  Inglis — commanding  and  austerely 
majestic  on  the  bench.  Kind  to  me  he  was,  and  quickly 
so.  And  at  the  bar  Kinnear,  soon  to  be  Dean.  That 
trembling  and  apparently  nervous  figure  concealed  a  spirit 
of  the  rarest  courage,  and  a  mind  so  sweet  that  I  do  not 
believe  that  there  ever  crossed  it — and  I  speak  of  him 
after  long  years  (he  was  Dean  and  Scotch  Judge,  and 
in  late  years  my  colleague  in  the  Lords) — I  do  not 
believe  that  there  ever  crossed  it  one  single  ignoble 
thought. 

But  where  was  I  ?  I  was  speaking  of  that  inevitable 
division  of  young  men,  which  you  may  dub,  if  you  like, 
rings  or  parties.  To  which  of  these  parties  or  sets  of  men 
did  your  father  belong  ?  Alas  !  dear,  to  none.  No  set 
claimed  him  :  no  set  knew  him  :  he  was  alone.  I  believe 
that  had  he  not  kept  himself  busily  exercised  he  would 
have  felt  the  cold. 

This  must  have  been  so,  I  think,  because  of  the  sur- 
prise I  felt  when — it  was  the  day  after  I  had  donned  the 
gown — pacing  the  Parliament  Hall,  I  was  suddenly  con- 
fronted by  McKechnie,  a  brawny  and  bewigged  High- 
lander, who  held  out  his  hand  and  bade  me  welcome. 
Why  was  I  thus  honoured  ?  I  asked.  "  Oh,"  said  he,  "  I 
have  heard  about  you  speaking  in  my  old  debating  club, 
the  Tusculan  Society." 

Thirty  years  afterwards  I  was  pacing  the  same  boards, 
but  I  was  differently  attired.  I  had  just  presented  to  the 
Court  my  Commission  as  Lord  Advocate,  and  use  and 


44  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

wont  sent  me  to  walk  up  and  down  the  great  hall.  On 
those  occasions  anyone  is  a  guy — black  doeskin  coat  and 
breeches,  silk  stockings,  shoes  with  steel  buckles,  and, 
over  all,  that  beautiful  black  betasselled  gown  which  a 
great  Lord  Advocate,  Lord  Moncreiff,  had  furnished  as 
a  handsome  perquisite  for  the  use  of  his  successors.  "  Mr. 
Dowell,"  said  I  to  my  clerk,  standing  on  guard  and  hat 
in  hand  in  the  crowd,  "  Mr.  Dowell,  send  for  McKechnie." 
'  What,  my  Lord  ?  "  said  he,  rather  nonplussed.  "  Bring 
McKechnie." 

The  brave  McKechnie  had  had  a  struggle  and  a 
history  during  that  lapse  of  years.  A  native  of  Jura,  he 
had  reached  his  boyish  ambition  and  had  risen  to  be 
Sheriff  of  Argyll;  then  had  had  to  resign  all  through 
illness;  but  he  had  pluckily  begun  again  and  was  again 
gathering  a  practice. 

He  came,  bowed  low,  spoke  his  felicitations,  and  asked 
why  I  had  done  him  the  honour  to  send  for  him. 

"  McKechnie,"  said  I,  "  when  I  came  here  thirty  years 
ago,  friendless  and  alone,  you  were  the  first  to  bid  me 
welcome.  So  I  thought  that  I  should  like,  on  this  morn- 
ing, to  have  the  privilege  of  shaking  you  by  the  hand." 
He  was  visibly  moved,  and  murmured  a  few  words;  and 
we  shook  hands  and  parted. 

I  am  away  from  the  early  days ;  but,  you  see,  you  tempt 
me  to  these  asides.  So  let  us  go  back.  Yes,  it  was  a 
lonely  business;  the  solitude  enough  sometimes  to  strike 
one  to  the  heart.  Yet  whose  fault  was  it?  I  could  not 
have  it  both  ways  and  every  way.  My  "  immersion  "  was 
philosophy;  my  true  delights  were  in  literature.  And 
apart  from  private  friendships,  which  were  not  within  my 
range,  there  was  not  and  there  is  not  to  this  day,  in  Scot- 


THROUGH  THE   METROPOLITAN   GATE     45 

land,  that  general  camaraderie  of  those  Inns  of  Court 
which  are  a  true  and  sweet  ornament  of  the  English  and 
Irish  Bar.  As  with  University  life,  so  with  legal  life,  it 
was  all  the  veritable  rigour  of  the  game. 

That  is   enough   for  you   at   present.      Off   you   go. 

Shoo! 

Your  very  own, 

SHAW  OF  D. 


LETTER    X 
MURDER?     FORGERY?     NEITHER 

The  North  House, 
Hertford. 

December  7,  1919. 
DEAREST  INFANTA, 

You  remember  the  scandalous  Sunday  afternoons? 
After  being  twice  to  church — all  of  us  as  a  family — you 
stormed  my  citadel,  or  rather  my  story-factory,  where  the 
genuine  home-made  article  was  unfolded  by  the  yard,  and 
how  you,  of  all  the  pack,  you  were  the  most  insistent  for  a 
"  bluggy  "  one  ?  All  of  you  were  set  on  "  thrills."  When 
the  drama  in  doggerel  came  along — a  Sunday  composi- 
tion ! — with  four  parts,  one  for  each  of  you,  and  a  fifth 
part  for  Cousin  David — you  strove  to  thicken  the  plot  and 
even  help  the  rhymes  ? 

Prologue 
"The  theme  is  Love,  so  deep  and  tender" — 

Author:  "  Now  then,  children,  what  rhymes  with 
'tender'?" 

Chorus:  "  Fender  !  " 

Author:  "  Right.     Here  goes  again  : — 

"  The  theme  is  Love,  so  deep  and  tender, 
And  Crime  as  low  and  black  as  the  fender  : 
And  Magic,  baffling  Crime  so  well, 
That  Love  ends  with  the  marriage-bell. 
Threads  of  Love  and  threads  of  Crime 
Are  woven  in  this  Nursery  Rhyme." 
46 


MURDER?    FORGERY?    NEITHER      47 

And  so  on.  You  remember?  Well  then,  you  are 
still  after  thrills,  I  know;  and  you  think  that  a  young 
barrister's  acquaintance  with  the  criminal  classes  should 
produce  some?, 

I  will,  if  I  must.  But  bear  in  mind  that  a  Scotch 
advocate  in  good  practice  has  hardly  ever  a  good  criminal 
case.  If  he  is  on  the  Lord  Advocate's  team,  of  course 
he  must  prosecute ;  but  never  otherwise ;  for  in  that  happy 
country  private  prosecution  is  unknown.  An  offence  is 
an  offence  against  society,  and  society  takes  it  in  hand 
and  sees  to  its  punishment  and,  if  possible,  its  extirpation, 
and  that  with  never  a  smack  of  private  umbrage  or  rancour 
or  hostility  or  revenge. 

And  the  Courts  are  scrupulous  that  every  prisoner, 
however  forlorn,  shall  be  defended.  So  young  advocates 
roam  the  country  with  the  Assizes,  called  the  Circuit 
Courts.  Should  they  disappear,  still  the  rule  holds,  and 
the  Bench  there  and  then  orders  the  sheriffs  or  County 
Court  judges  to  don  the  wig,  and  defend  the  defenceless, 
be  he  the  veriest  wretch  according  to  every  code  of  pre- 
judice or  probability. 

It  was  on  one  of  these  journeys — to  Glasgow — that  I 
was  asked  to  hold  a  junior  brief  for  one  Doherty,  and  in 
this  humble  way  I  became  participant  in  proceedings 
which  culminated  in  a  callous  and  sinister  judicial  murder. 

I  have  looked  up  no  records  of  the  case,  but  shall  give 
you  the  ghastly  features  of  it,  just  as  it  remains  for  ever 
stamped  upon  my  mind. 

Doherty  and  his  sweetheart  were  standing  at  the  door 
of  her  dwelling  near  the  Bridge  of  Rutherglen.  A  man 
passed  and  flung  a  word  of  gross  insult  at  the  girl. 
Doherty  sprang  forward  and  seized  a  hoe  that  was  lean- 


48  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

ing  against  the  wall.  He  struck  the  man  a  single  blow, 
or,  as  you  might  say,  gave  the  man  a  whack  with  the  hoe. 
Unhappily,  and  most  surprisingly,  the  blow  was  mortal : 
the  man  was  killed. 

There  was  not  the  slightest  suggestion  of  deadly  in- 
tent, not  the  slightest  hint  of  anything  like  animosity 
further  than  the  passing  resentment  against  the  affront  to 
the  sweetheart  by  his  side.  And  Doherty's  good  character 
was  sworn  to;  his  life  had  been  blameless.  It  was  as 
plain  a  case  of  manslaughter — or,  as  they  say  in  the  North, 
of  culpable  homicide — and  as  plainly  not  a  case  of  murder, 
as  ever  was  seen. 

Then  misadventure  crowded  upon  misadventure. 
Robertson,  the  Advocate  Depute,  strangely  enough,  but 
with  skill,  pleaded  for  a  verdict  of  murder.  The  judge, 
Lord  Neaves,  was  then  old  and  somewhat  enfeebled  :  he 
made  the  way  clear  for  the  minor  verdict;  but  the  jury 
could  not  hear  him.  All  that  they  did  hear  was  an  old 
peroration  (it  had  done  duty  before)  about  the  majesty  of 
British  justice;  and  they  got  it  into  their  heads  that  the 
law  was  that  murder  had  been  committed.  They  con- 
victed, with  a  recommendation  to  mercy. 

Still  calamity  followed  calamity.  The  Home  Secre- 
tary had  the  petition  of  reprieve  sent  to  him;  the  judge 
backed  it  with  his  opinion.  But  it  was  the  holiday  season ; 
some  confusion,  it  was  said,  occurred  with  another  and 
far  less  deserving  case  of  real  murder  where  a  false  plea 
of  insanity  had  been  set  up.  The  Home  Secretary,  be 
that  as  it  may,  reprieved  the  latter  man,  declined  to  inter- 
fere in  the  Rutherglen  case,  and  young  Doherty  was 
hanged.  In  three  weeks,  as  if  to  complete  the  tragedy, 
his  aged  father  died  of  a  broken  heart. 


MURDER?    FORGERY?    NEITHER      49 

John  Bright  in  his  place  in  Parliament  denounced  the 
transaction  as  a  judicial  murder.  And  a  judicial  murder 
it  was.  From  that  hour  to  this  I  have  ceased  to  believe 
in  the  punishment  of  death.  Cases,  in  the  intervening 
years,  have  occurred  which  have  deepened  my  conviction. 
Every  human  judgment  is  mingled  with  human  error,  and 
in  the  issues  of  life  and  death  no  judge  should  be  charged 
with  an  irrevocable  doom. 


Perhaps,  dear,  you  have  got  more  than  you  bargained 
for  when  you  set  me  loose  on  this  track.  Let  me  now 
draw  you  a  cloud  with  a  silver  lining.  No  longer  murder, 
but  forgery. 

Persons  or  even  places  I  will  not  name,  and  that  for 
obvious  reasons,  though  the  scene  was  between  forty  and 
fifty  years  ago.  I  had  in  fact  just  passed  to  the  Bar,  I 
was  myself  a  high-strung  actor,  and  everything  in  it 
remains  indelibly  impressed  upon  my  mind. 

"  Is  it  right  for  an  advocate  to  defend  a  prisoner  whom 
he  knows  to  be  guilty?"  How  often  have  families  dis- 
cussed this  old  problem,  and  how  often  have  debating 
societies  debated  it?  Aye,  and  how  often  has  the  con- 
scientious, scrupulous  man  been  troubled  by  it?  Well, 
listen.  I  was  about  to  get  my  answer  to  it,  and  my  answer 
for  life. 

A  day's  journey  from  the  circuit  and  county  town  of 
X  was  the  little  village  of  Y.  And  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Y  dwelt  two  farmers,  brothers-in-law.  In  those  days, 
far  more,  happily,  than  now,  bills  went  flying  about  a 
country  community,  one  farmer  backing  another's  notes, 
and  the  other  returning  the  accommodation,  till  you  had 


50  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

almost  said  that  one  of  the  acknowledged  processes  of 
agriculture  was  the  circulation  of  blue  paper.  Now  and 
again  there  were  charges  of  forgery,  and  strange  hap- 
penings on  that  head  were  investigated  in  the  criminal 
courts. 

Presiding  over  that  circuit  was  Lord  Young,  whose 
reputation  for  intellectual  force,  and  whose  disposition 
towards  the  rapid  dispatch  of  business  had,  of  course, 
preceded  him.  This  predisposed  everyone  to  the  view 
that  it  was  more  in  a  prisoner's  own  interest  to  plead  guilty 
than  to  set  up  a  hopeless  defence. 

Suddenly  a  big  bundle  of  papers  was  put  into  my  hand, 
and  I  retired  to  read  them  through,  and  again  read  them 
through.  I  came  to  the  clear  opinion  that  the  accused, 
whom  I  shall  call  "  Mr.  Prisoner,"  was  a  guilty  man. 
Was  this,  then,  the  old  problem  in  front  of  me?  I  must 
make  sure. 

So,  wig  and  gown  and  all,  I  went  down  into  the  cells 
and  asked  for  an  interview. 

"  Mr.  Prisoner,"  s*aid  I,  "  you  know  the  judge  on  the 
bench?" 

"  I  have  read  about  him,"  said  he. 

"  Mr.  Prisoner,"  I  asked,  "have  you  a  family?  " 

"  Sir,"  he  said,  "  I  have  a  wife  and  eight  children." 

He  was  a  broadly  built,  simple-minded-looking, 
honest-looking  man.  But  the  case  against  him  was  clear; 
and  how  to  get  him  the  easiest  terms  was  the  point. 

"  Mr.  Prisoner,"  said  I,  "  I  have  gone  over  all  the 
documents,  and  honestly  I  think  that  your  best  way  would 
be  just  to  plead  guilty  at  once,  and  I  shall  say  what  I  can 
in  mitigation  of  sentence." 

He  showed  no  surprise  at  this,  none;  he  seemed  to 


MURDER?    FORGERY?    NEITHER      51 

take  it  for  granted  that  this  was  inevitable,  and  was  the 
reasonable  view.  So  he  said,  "  Very  well,  sir,  I  will  do 
whatever  you  say.  I  will  plead  guilty." 

I  wish  to  make  quite  clear  to  you  that  that  was  the 
length  he  went.  It  would  have  been  brutal  to  treat  him 
as  in  the  confessional;  that  is  no  part  of  an  advocate's 
duty  and  would  have  been  presumption  in  a  stripling. 
But,  of  course,  nothing  could  be  clearer,  as  to  his  guilt. 
To  my  own  personal  conviction  he  was  to  add  his  own 
solemn  plea.  I  returned  to  the  Court. 

There  was  another  case  going  on,  and  it  lasted  some 
time.  I  sat  on,  my  head  full  of  the  coming  task.  Then 
one  of  those  curious  psychological  phenomena  took  place, 
which  I  have  never  been  able  to  account  for,  and  which 
old-fashioned  people  would  reverently  place  to  a  special 
Divine  interposition.  I  came  to  think  that  perhaps  the 
prisoner's  plea  of  guilty  would  be  a  false  plea.  Perhaps 
my  own  conviction  of  his  guilt  was  quite  a  mistake.  Per- 
haps he  was  the  victim  of  an  infamous  conspiracy  which 
— God  help  me  with  my  inexperience  and  lack  of  skill — 
it  was  my  duty  to  try  to  unravel. 

In  a  little  he  came  from  below  and  sat  between  two 
policemen,  placing  his  two  hands  on  the  rail  in  front. 
Those  hands  did  it!  I  should  explain  to  you  that  the 
forgery  was  the  most  skilful  I  have  ever  known — a  precise 
and  delicate  piece  of  work. 

My  doubts  in  an  instant  gave  way  to  a  conviction  that 
those  hands  could  never  have  done  it.  They  were  broad, 
fat,  bulgy,  unwieldy.  I  leaned  over  the  dock  and  said  : 
"  Mr.  Prisoner,  plead  not  guilty."  He  rose,  dazed  but 
obedient,  bowed  to  the  judge,  and  so  pleaded.  The  judge 
said  sharply  :  "  I  thought  this  was  to  be  a  plea  of  guilty." 


52  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

'  The  prisoner  pleads  not  guilty,"  said  I.  He  looked  at 
me,  then  at  the  prisoner;  and  the  trial  began. 

You  must  understand  that  there  were  six  bills ;  numbers 
i,  3  and  5  were  said  to  be  genuine,  and  numbers  2,  4  and 
6  were  said  to  be  forged.  They  were  all,  say,  drawn  by 
the  prisoner  upon  and  accepted  by  his  brother-in-law. 
The  bills  had  got  into  the  hands  of  a  so-called  accountant 
in  the  village. 

Mr.  Accountant  swore  that  he  could  get  his  money  on 
the  forged  bills  neither  from  the  brother-in-law,  to  whom 
he  had  written,  nor  from  the  accused.  So  he  had  set  the 
authorities  in  action. 

"  Where  do  you  live  ?  "  I  asked.  "  And  what  do  you 
do?  " 

"In  the  village  of  Y,"  said  he;  "and  I  am  an 
accountant." 

"  How  many  inhabitants  has  Y  ?  "  to  which  came  the 
answer  : 

"  About  three  hundred." 

"  As  an  accountant  in  this  village  of  three  hundred," 
I  asked,  "  do  you  keep  any  books  ?  " 

The  witness  flamed  up,  demanding  loudly  of  the  judge 
whether  he  was  bound  to  answer  about  his  private  affairs. 

Said  the  judge  :  "  The  question  is  very  simple  :  '  Do 
you  keep  any  books  ? ' 

"  I  keep  a  letter-book,"  said  the  witness. 

"  Your  only  book?  "  said  I. 

"  Yes,"  said  he;  "  and  I  have  it  here." 

"  You  say  that  you  wrote  to  the  acceptor  of  these  three 
bills  that  they  were  overdue ;  is  that  letter  booked  ?  " 

"  It  is,"  said  the  witness ;  "  and  it  is  there'' 

The  book  was  handed  down.     I  had  never  seen  it; 


MURDER?    FORGERY?   NEITHER       53 

but  lo  !  the  entry  was  as  I  expected  !  As  an  office  boy  I 
had  known  that  page-and-a-half  letters  left,  of  course,  a 
half-page  which  might  be  filled  up  by  another  short  letter. 
And  I  had  often  thought  that  that  was  a  bad  system,  for 
a  little  letter  might  be  slipped  into  the  vacant  plot  long 
afterwards — in  fact,  so  long  as  the  plot  remained.  It 
seemed  to  me  clear  that  this  was  exactly  what  had  been 
done.  When  the  witness  finally  resolved  to  put  the  law 
into  operation,  he  preceded  that  by  concocting  such  a 
letter  to  be  booked  into  a  date  and  place  with  a  suitable 
blank. 

By  this  time  the  judge,  who  had  given  me  every 
consideration,  showed  signs  of  very  watchful  interest. 
"  Hand  me  that  book,"  said  he,  and  he  kept  it  beside  him. 

Then  I  launched  my  bolt.  "  Do  you  sell  bill 
stamps  ?  "  I  asked. 

The  witness  went  into  a  fury  of  protest.  The  judge 
said,  "  Witness,  the  words  are  very  short  words  :  *  Do  you 
sell  bill  stamps? '  Do  you  understand  them?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  he. 

"  Then  answer  them,"  came  the  command.  And  the 
answer  was  in  the  affirmative. 

The  next  witness  was  the  brother-in-law,  who,  of 
course,  denied  the  signatures.  When  I  asked  him 
whether  on  a  certain  date  he  had  received  a  letter  from 
the  previous  witness,  Lord  Young  handed  down  the 
letter-book  and  said,  "  Read  the  letter  aloud  and  plainly 
to  him." 

I  did  so.  The  witness  showed  signs  of  impatience, 
but  I  read  on  to  the  end.  Then  he  said  in  a  loud  voice, 
"  My  Lord,  I  never  got  such  a  letter  in  the  course  of  my 
life." 


54  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

The  Judge  said  firmly  to  the  Crown  Prosecutor,  "  Mr. 
Advocate  Depute,  of  the  two  principal  witnesses  for  the 
Crown,  one  or  other  has  committed  perjury." 

Result,  collapse;  the  prisoner,  poor,  dazed,  honest 
soul,  dismissed  expressly  without  a  stain  upon  his  char- 
acter. The  verdict  was  universally  approved.  Inno- 
cence had  triumphed.  And,  furthermore — not  a  soul  in 
that  crowded  Court  without  the  sure  conviction  that  he 
knew  the  true  answer — do  you  ? — to  the  question,  Who  was 
the  forger? 

A  wicked  world,  my  darling,  but  upon  the  whole  Justice 
does  come  to  its  own.  And  in  the  course  of  that  process, 
never  have  any  doubt  as  to  where  the  advocate's  duty  lies. 
What  was  the  problem  ?  "  Is  it  right  for  him  to  defend 
a  man  whom  he  knows  to  be  guilty  ?  "  The  presumption 
of  an  advocate  even  thinking  that  he  knows !  I  learned 
my  lesson.  Let  in  such  presumption,  and  Justice  might 
be  debauched  by  cowardice,  and  on  coward's  terms 

defeated. 

Your  highly  respected 

FATHER. 


LETTER    XI 

TRACTS    OF    WILDERNESS 

Craigmyle. 

May  27,  1920. 
ISABEL  DEAR, 

One  evening  a  few  months  ago  I  was  sitting  in  the 
dear  library  of  Palace  Gate  when  who  should  stalk  in  but 
Sir  Robert  Home,  the  Minister  of  Labour — just  as 
capable  as  a  Minister  of  the  Crown  as  he  had  been  so 
often  as  a  junior  to  myself  in  Edinburgh.  He  told  me 
how  the  dockers  at  all  the  ports  of  the  Kingdom  had 
consolidated  their  forces  and  tabled  their  demands,  how 
the  employers  and  they  wanted  a  Court  of  Inquiry,  how 
there  were  serious  chances  of  the  whole  sea-borne  trade 
of  the  country  being  held  up,  and — I  was  wanted  by  the 
Government  as  President  of  the  Court.  I  stoutly  refused ; 
the  strain  of  these  things  was  too  great  now;  they  must 
get  a  younger  man,  and  all  the  rest  of  it. 

What  did  the  fellow  do?  He  went  off  to  Paris  where 
the  Conference  of  the  great  ones  of  the  earth  was  sitting 
trying  to  re-shape  the  world  after  the  Great  War.  And 
in  two  days  I  had  a  telegram,  in  the  name  of  the  Prime 
Minister,  and  Mr.  Bonar  Law,  the  Leader  of  the) 
Commons,  and  the  Lord  Chancellor,  and  Home  himself, 
asking  me  to  take  up  the  task.  So  the  Dockers'  Inquiry 
had  to  be  faced;  a  ticklish  job,  with  many  economic, 
national  and  human  interests  hanging  about  it,  as  to  which 

55 


56  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

I  may  tell  you  something  by  and  by.  On  that  I  make  no 
promise. 

Then  after  that  task  was  over  came,  for  hearing  and 
decision,  a  swarm  of  law  cases,  dull,  heavy,  clamant — 
and  so  the  letters  to  you  receded  out  of  sight.  Months 
elapsed. 

But  stop;  who  went  there?  It  was  Time  itself;  and 
it  hit  me  a  whipping  reminder.  /  was  seventy  last  Sunday, 
The  other  day  I  forgathered  with  a  good  old  boatman  in 
similar  case  and  on  the  eve  of  superannuation. 

"Ah,  my  Lord,"  said  he,  "  I'm  not  what  I  was;  I  am 
not  so  sturdy;  you  see,  I  am  growing  old." 

"  Stop  that,  James  Macdonald,"  said  I ;  "  you  have  a 
lot  more  ill  to  do  yet." 

"  Well,  my  Lord,"  said  he,  solemnly,  "  I  hope  so." 
Then  he  stopped  short,  realizing  his  slip;  and  we  both 
fell  a-laughing.  In  that  hearty  spirit  I  yield  to  your 
solicitations  and  I  open  the  latch  of  memory.  Where 
was  I  ? 

Ah  !  it  was  about  my  law  cases.  Well,  to  tell  the  truth, 
my  recollections  of  them  are  fortunately  dim;  the  one 
case  crushed  out  the  other;  and  I  could  cry  off  on  that 
score  alone.  But  there  is  the  other  also — the  real  dis- 
relish of  anything  which  would  savour  of  an  attempt  to 
make  a  hero  out  of  a  person  in  drab.  For  which  reason 
— there  and  thereabouts — all  legal  autobiographies  ought 
to  be  burned. 

It  is  a  case  for  compromise.  So  you  will  get  no  more 
from  me  than  another  story  about  the  beginning  of  the 
advocate's  life.  And  perhaps,  if  time  permit  and  memory 
serve,  some  sample  of  interest  towards  its  close. 


TRACTS   OF   WILDERNESS  57 

Let  me  tell  you  the  story  of  the  Trial  of  the  Lewis 
Deer  Raiders. 

It  is  difficult  to  make  anyone  now  realize  the  extra- 
ordinary acuteness  of  controversial  feeling  over  the 
Highland  land  question  forty  years  ago.  Society,  the 
population  of  Scotland  at  large,  was  divided  by  a  deep, 
broad  chasm.  I  had  rather  said,  speaking  in  a  special 
sense  of  the  one  and  in  a  general  sense  of  the  other, 
Society  was  on  one  side  of  the  chasm ;  the  population  was 
on  the  other.  The  three  outstanding  problems  were,  the 
tragically  unequal  distribution  of  land,  the  insecurity  of 
the  crofter  or  small  cultivator  in  his  holding,  and  the  un- 
fairness of  his  rent,  this  last  producing  a  positively  pitiable 
dead-weight  of  debt  in  the  shape  of  arrears. 

The  first — the  inequality  in  the  distribution  of  land 
— is  a  puzzle  old  as  the  centuries.  I  do  not  say  it  is 
insoluble,  far  from  that;  but  it  still  remains,  and  it  will 
probably  remain  until  the  whole  shape  and  colour  of 
government  in  this  country  undergo  a  fundamental 
change. 

But  the  second  and  third  of  these  problems  were 
within  the  reach  of  the  statesmanship  of  the  day,  and  so 
came  the  Crofters  Act  of  1886.  Hardly  had  it  been 
passed  into  law  and  the  Commissioners  appointed,  when 
down  came  the  Liberal  Government,  and  a  Unionist 
Government — strong,  powerful,  determined,  and  with 
very  different  landlord  and  tenant  views — reigned  in  its 
stead. 

But  the  visits  and  perambulations  of  the  Crofters 
Commissioners,  of  course,  however,  went  on,  and  with 
them  there  appeared  to  be,  and  in  truth  there  was,  the 
dawn  of  a  new  and  better  era. 


58  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

As  I  say,  it  is  now  difficult  even  to  figure  the  strength 
of  the  opposition  between  the  two  views — of  those  who 
defended  their  passionate  attachment  to  their  homes, 
under  the  names  of  fixity  of  tenure  and  of  fair  rent,  and 
those  who  defended  the  right  of  eviction  and  the  duty  of 
submission,  under  the  names  of  freedom  of  contract  and 
of  law  and  order. 

Feeling  was  fanned  into  a  flame  by  Mr.  Chamberlain. 
Mr.  Chamberlain  was  never  in  his  life  afraid  to  be  in 
advance  of  the  band.  He  passed  like  a  fiery  cross  on 
to  Inverness.  I  remember  yet  the  electrical  effect  of  his 
citation  from  the  Canadian  Boat  Song : 

"  From  the  dear  shieling-  on  the  misty  island 
Mountains  divide  us  and  a  world  of  seas ; 
But  still  our  hearts  are  true,  our  hearts  are  Highland, 
And  in  our  dreams  we  see  the  Hebrides. 
Tall  are  those  mountains  and  those  woods  are  grand ; 
But  we  are  exiles  from  our  native  land." 

There  was  no  mistaking  the  application  of  the  lines,  and 
they  pealed  like  a  trumpet  through  the  North. 

Of  the  Hebrides,  Tiree,  belonging  to  the  Duke  of 
Argyll,  and  Lewis,  belonging  to  the  Mathieson  family, 
were  among  the  worst  areas  of  unrest.  So  in  the  year 
1887-8  the  Crofters  Commissioners  were  to  visit  Lewis 
to  hear  evidence  and  to  look  about.  And  in  a  little 
schoolroom  of  Belallan,  near  Stornoway,  a  meeting  was 
held  for  the  worthy  purpose  of  arranging  who  should  be 
the  witnesses  and  of  getting  together  a  few  pounds  for 
the  crofters'  case. 

At  this  meeting,  however,  arrangements,  not  so  worthy 
and  not  so  wise,  were  made  for  something  more  demon- 
strative and  emphatic.  The  deer  preserve — an  immense 


TRACTS   OF   WILDERNESS  59 

and,  of  course,  lonely  forest — was  to  be  invaded  and  some 
of  the  deer  killed,  with  all  sorts  of  claims  mooted  to  more 
land,  more  land.  In  a  fortnight  afterwards,  in  the  same 
month  of  November,  1887,  the  raid  took  place. 

The  prime  instigator  was  an  able  speaker  and  land 
reformer,  the  schoolmaster,  Donald  Macrae.  If  there 
was  to  be  a  case  about  it,  the  Government  were  right  to 
hold  him  quite  as  responsible  as  the  actual  participants 
in  the  expedition.  And  so,  sure  enough,  when  six  brawny 
and  bewildered  Islemen  stood  up  in  the  dock  of  the  Edin- 
burgh High  Court  of  Justiciary  to  answer  the  fateful 
question,  "  Are  you  guilty  or  not  guilty?  "  the  least  brawny 
and  least  bewildered  of  them  all,  the  schoolmaster  Macrae, 
was  first  on  the  list. 

The  authorities  had  lost  no  time;  the  trial  was  in 
January,  1888.  As  to  the  place,  imagine  if  you  can  two 
places  in  the  whole  land  of  Scotland  more  dissevered  in 
outlook,  in  habits  of  mind  and  life,  in  sympathy,  than  on 
the  one  hand  the  bare  and  rain-swept  outpost  in  the' 
Hebrides,  and,  on  the  other,  Edinburgh  and  its  Parliament 
House  !  If  the  avoiding  of  local  prejudice  was  to  be 
secured,  it  was  secured;  and  if  there  was  even  a  risk  of 
reaching  an  opposite  camp  of  feeling,  that  was  a  bearable 
misfortune ! 

As  to  the  bench,  a  thing  rarely,  if  ever,  seen,  occurred. 
To  keep  the  ordinary  jury  right  in  point  of  law — there  was 
really  very  little  law  in  the  case — three  judges  occupied 
the  seat  of  justice  instead  of  one.  As  to  the  bar,  the 
situation  was  queer  :  apparently  it  was  considered  hardly 
respectable  to  defend  such  people — a  forgery  or  a  murder 
case  was  all  very  well — but  such  people !  So  the  rumour 
went  that  the  defence  had  been  offered  to  and  not  accepted 


60  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

by  ;  but  I  know  nothing  of  that.  The  case  came 

my  way  in  the  ordinary  course;  I  defended  the  school- 
master and  another  of  the  accused,  a  worthy  local  mer- 
chant. Their  names  stood  first  on  the  list  of  prisoners  and 
so  I  had  to  lead,  owing  to  that  circumstance.  Another 
prisoner  was  defended  by  Strachan,  a  man  of  wide  literary 
knowledge  and  of  a  real  power  of  eloquence.  Others  de- 
fended others  :  quite  an  array !  A  kind  of  sub-conscious- 
ness that  there  was  more  in  the  struggle  than  the  case 
gave  the  whole  a  spice  of  adventure. 

Now,  with  all  these  advantages  of  place,  time,  sym- 
pathy, prestige,  in  their  favour,  what  went  wrong  with  the 
Crown  authorities?  Simply,  my  dear,  what  goes  wrong 
with  such  people  so  often  :  they  overshot  the  mark.  They 
charged  the  accused  with  nothing  other  and  nothing  less 
than  "  mobbing  and  rioting  "  !  The  loneliness  of  the 
spot,  the  total  absence  of  any  terror  or  alarm  to  anybody, 
except  the  deer  or  the  hawk  or  the  curlew,  the  fact  that 
when  the  local  sheriff  heard  of  the  incursion  he  went  out 
and  spoke  a  word  of  kindly  counsel  to  the  men,  who  there- 
upon all  went  off  to  their  own  homes — all  this — I  am  say- 
ing what  I  believed  then  and  (saving  their  Eminences  in 
some  high  places)  what  I  still  think — all  this  made  a{ 
charge  of  mobbing  and  rioting  ridiculous.  The  advantage 
of  it,  however,  from  an  administrative  point  of  view,  was 
this — that  conviction  could  be  followed  by  such  swingeing 
sentences,  even  of  penal  servitude,  as  might  stamp  out 
land  agitation  for  a  generation. 

"  But,"  I  said  at  consultation  before  the  trial,  "  these 
men  did  wrong,  though  they  were  not  mobbing  and  riot- 
ing, did  they  not  ?.  " 

Then  I  was  answered  by  my  junior,  an  industrious 


TRACTS   OF   WILDERNESS  61 

and  most  thoughtful  man,  now  Sheriff  McPhail;  and  his 
answer  is  one  for  which  he  and  he  alone  has  the  entire 
credit.' 

'  They  committed,"  said  he,  "  an  offence  against  an 
Act  of  William  IV  (which  he  cited).  They  assembled 
and  trespassed,  to  the  number  of  five  or  more,  in  pursuit 
of  game.  Penalty,  ^"5  each." 

"  I  see,"  said  I ;  and  on  that  we  ran  the  case.  Five 
pounds  a  head  would  not  satisfy  the  prosecutor;  he  was 
out  for  penal  servitude. 

There  is  really  nothing  more  on  the  legal  side  to  tell. 
What  was  proved  was  pretty  much  what  I  have  set  down. 
Yet  the  prosecution  was  bitter,  and  always  on  the  high 
horse.  The  Solicitor-General  demanded  a  verdict  of 
mobbing  and  rioting  as  "  absolutely  necessary  and  im- 
perative for  the  interests  of  the  State."  This,  of  course, 
let  in  the  whole  point  of  law  and  a  good  deal  more.  A 
five  pound  fine  :  not  enough  for  the  interests  of  the  State  : 
get  up  something,  however  grotesque,  which  would  re- 
sound, in  every  sense  of  the  term,  in  something  more 
penal.  A  Government  prosecution  :  nothing  but  a  political 
persecution;  however  the  bench  might  disapprove,  that 
we  fought  openly  and  without  reserve.  All  of  us,  counsel 
for  the  defence,  stood  together. 

Two  things  I  should  like  to  tell  you  about  this  trial; 
one,  a  literary  reference,  which  I  think  affected  it  in  its 
course,  and  another,  a  statistical  fact,  which  gives  much 
cause  for  reflection  on  the  action  of  Governments  in  all 
such  cases. 

On  the  first  matter,  as  you  may  imagine,  the  nature 
of  the  charge — mobbing  and  noting  in  a  solitude — 
naturally  led  me  to  observations  on  local  history  and 


62  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

economy.  What  a  picture  it  was !  No  less  than  one 
hundred  and  fifty  square  miles  in  the  one  forest,  under 
deer.  The  people  lifted  from  the  good  inland  holdings 
to  the  wastes  near  the  shore,  and  the  whole  inland  con- 
solidated— turned  into  one  vast  solitude — for  sport.  Then 
I  quoted,  amid  dead  silence,  Tennyson's  lines  on  Pagan 
England  :— 

"  And  so  there  grew  great  tracts  of  wilderness 
Wherein  the  beast  was  ever  more  and  more, 
And  man  was  less  and  less." 

There  was  an  uproar  in  Court,  in  which  I  think  I  saw 
the  jury  joining  with  their  feet — a  tumult  which  the  Court 
and  ushers  peremptorily  suppressed.  The  land  lay  safe. 
Each  of  the  three  judges  charged  the  unfortunate  jury. 
But  the  jury's  mind  was  clear  :  there  was  no  "  not  proven  " 
about  it.  All  the  six  prisoners  were  found  not  guilty. 
They  went  outside  amid  acclamations,  and  the  school- 
master spoke  with  fire  and  passion  wild  and  exuberant 
things. 

The  next  thing  is  what  I  know  that  you  and  all  shrewd 
persons  like  yourself  would  want  to  be  at,  namely  this— 
was  there  any  real  and  substantial  thing  in  fact  which 
can  explain  among  such  people  such  an  emeute?  You 
are  neither  hocussed  nor  overawed  by  forms  of  law,  and 
you  want  to  know  what  was  at  the  back  of  it  all. 

Well  then,  listen  to  this.  The  Commissioners  went 
round.  They  made  their  independent  investigations. 
They  reported — I  looked  into  the  Report  the  other  day 
—that  in  the  Lewis,  the  Mathieson  estate,  there  were 
772  holdings  on  a  rent-roll  of  ,£2,384,  but  that  this  rent 
was  in  excess  of  a  fair  rent  by  ^755.  But  affairs  were 
sadly  worse  than  that.  Suffering  for  years  this  excess, 


TRACTS   OF   WILDERNESS  63 

and  bound  to  submit  to  it  or  leave  their  homes,  these 
tenants  had  fallen  into  arrears  :  they  were  under  a  burden 
of  this  debt  to  the  staggering  amount  of  ,£14,845.  Surely 
life  under  such  circumstances  was  without  help  or  hope; 
yet  they  nursed  their  misery  and  looked  upon  eviction  as 
doom.  At  one  stroke  the  Commissioners  cancelled  arrears 
by  no  less  than  ,£10,216,  and  the  mountain  of  debt  was 
reduced  to  a  manageable  balance,  which  was  paid.  In 
all,  rents  were  reduced  by  about  30  per  cent,  and  arrears 
cancelled  by  70  per  cent.  Similar  enormous  reductions 
were  made  over  great  spaces  of  the  North  and  West.  It 
was  better  so  for  all  parties,  even  financially,  for  rents 
were  no  longer  piled  up  :  they  were  paid. 

The  new  system  did  not  fail.  On  the  contrary,  it  was 
in  its  main  features,  of  fair  rent  and  fixity  of  tenure  for 
all  smallholders,  extended  by  and  by  to  the  whole  of  the 
country.  Remember  that  the  Raid  took  place  in  the  dark- 
ness before  the  dawn.  The  protest  of  the  Raid  may  have 
been  incoherent,  violent,  if  you  like,  ridiculous;  but  men 
of  all  classes  were  startled  by  it  into  a  consciousness  that  it 
was  a  protest  against  a  system  which  even  in  good  hands 
lent  itself  to  oppression. 

The  defence  made  this  consciousness  articulate,  and 
all  through  the  Highlands  this  fact — a  big,  new  fact- 
was  received  with  boundless  and  lasting  gratitude.  I  did 
not  realize  this  or  any  of  these  more  general  things  in 
the  outspoken  hammer  and  tongs  bit  of  work  that  had  to 
be  done.  But  of  this  gratitude  I  will  give  you  a  curious 
instance. 

More  than  thirty  years  after  the  trial,  Alexander  was 
the  guest  of  his  father-in-law,  Lord  Inchcape,  in  Ross- 
shire.  When  fishing  on  one  of  the  beautiful  lochs,  he 


64  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

was  conscious  that  the  boatman  was  watching  him 
keenly. 

"  Are  you,  sir,"  said  the  ghillie,  "  begging  your  pardon, 
are  you,  sir,  related  to  Lord  Shaw  ?  " 

"  I  am  his  son,"  said  Alexander.  And  then  the  boat- 
man, solemnly  taking  off  his  bonnet,  said  these  words  : — • 

"  Sir,  there  is  many  a  man  in  the  Highlands  would 
die  for  your  father." 

Please  do  not  be  flattering  yourself  that  that  had  any- 
thing to  do  with  your  father  himself,  more  than  this — that, 
as  I  have  said,  he  made,  at  a  critical  social  juncture — he 
made  articulate  the  consciousness  of  undeserved  misery. 

Your  ever  loving 

S.  OF  D. 


LETTER    XII 

WORSE   THAN    AN    INFIDEL 

Townhill  Park, 

Southampton. 

December  31,  1919. 
MY  DEAREST  LASS, 

The  year  draws  to  its  close.  It  is  a  time  for  looking 
back,  and  for  your  sake  and  by  your  wish  I  am  looking 
back  pretty  far.  One  searches  for  "  the  things  that  can- 
not be  shaken."  They  remain.  Fashions  are  volatile; 
customs  grow  stale ;  many  conventions,  once  hard  as  iron, 
have  melted  like  wax.  Does  anything,  then,  anything  at 
all,  in  all  the  range  and  governance  of  life,  stand  sure? 
Well,  that  depends.  And  it  depends,  more  than  on  any 
other  one  thing  you  can  name,  on  how  you  have  been 
brought  up. 

This  illustration  occurs  to  my  mind.  The  Sabbath  Day. 
I  reverence  it  and  I  prize  it.  Forgive  the  paraphrase  : 
but  it  is  "  the  balm  of  each  week's  life,  sore  labour's  bath." 
I  say  nothing  about  its  divine  institution,  though  I  believe 
in  that  too,  as  you  well  know.  But  if  has  been  sorely 
mishandled  when  it  has  lost  its  place  of  privilege  and 
become  an  interruption  and  a  bore.  Take  my  own  case. 
I  can  truly  say  that  for  over  thirty  years  of  my  life  there 
was  not  one  week-end  on  which  I  could  not  have  pleaded 
exhaustion  and  left  work  over  for  Sunday.  And  I  ami 
also  as  truly  certain  of  this,  that  if  I  had  yielded  to 

F  65 


66  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

that  temptation  I  should  long  ago  have  been  in  my 
grave. 

The  really  laborious  man  cannot  afford  to  work  on 
Sunday.  Often  and  often  have  I  seen  times  when  the 
strain  of  nerve  and  battle  was  so  great,  that  one  strove 
through  it  and  towards  the  Sabbath  calm  with  a  certain 
passionate  exaltation  of  mind. 

I  know  quite  well  the  habit  of  week-ending,  how  it 
grows — although  it  appears  to  be  going  off  a  bit — and 
how  the  reasons  for  it  in  many  cases  are  well  worth  con- 
sidering. But  if  such  week-ending  be  but  a  whirl  of 
exciting  gaiety,  it  is  a  point  of  grave  question  whether 
it  does  not  do  more  to  disturb  the  true  balance  of  life 
than  to  restore  it,  or  whether  indeed  it  would  not  have 
been  better  openly  to  ignore  the  institution  of  the  Sabbath 
altogether,  and  to  go  on  without  it. 

That  at  least  would  more  quickly  bring  the  revulsion. 
As  when  France,  saddened,  sickened  and  exhausted  with 
but  a  year  or  two  of  the  decadi,  restored  the  Christian 
Sabbath  as  a  central  institution  of  religion  come  again. 
You  remember  how  Vandal  treats  the  incident  in  one  of 
the  most  moving  passages  of  "  L'Avenement  de  Bona- 
parte." He  calls  upon  you  to  listen  to  the  awakening  of 
the  little  church  bells  from  the  nightmare  of  a  ruthless 
rationalism.  Parish  calls  to  parish  : — 

"  Ecoutez  !  C'est  1'eVeil :  c'est  1'insurrection,  c'est  la 
resurrection  des  cloches  !  " 

It  was,  as  it  were,  the  soothing  of  the  nervous  tension 
of  the  world. 

Anyhow,  my  Sabbaths  gave  to  me  my  happiest 
moments,  and,  in  a  great  stretch  of  years  crowded  with 
professional  and  public  cares,  they  made  family  life  in 


WORSE  THAN   AN   INFIDEL  67 

any  responsible  sense  a  possibility.  Literary  things, 
divine  things,  the  significance  of  life  for  oneself,  for  all 
dear  to  one,  for  the  great  moving  world;  going  to  church 
— why,  that  was  but  part  of  the  natural  homage  which 
one  paid  to  that  supreme  need  which  every  sensible  soul 
feels  for  moral  replenishment,  unless  he  be  a  butterfly, 
or  a  miser,  or  a  clod. 

Only,  of  course,  dimly  did  I  realize  these  things  when 
in  your  youth  I  adhered  to  the  principles  of  my  own. 
But  the  more  clearly  that  I  see  them  now,  the  less  in  that 
adhesion  do  I  see  to  regret. 

No  rigidity,  perhaps,  except  in  the  sense  that  the 
foundations  of  life  should  be  solid,  and  be  well  and  truly 
laid.  This,  after  a  long  experience,  in  which  I  have 
observed  a  greater  sense  of  hurry  in  the  pulses  and  the 
pace  of  human  society — this  at  least  one  can  truly  say, 
that  the  value  of  the  Sabbath  for  the  best  uses  of  mankind 
is  an  increasing  value  :  its  depreciation  would  mean  a  real 
degeneration  in  all  those  processes  of  civilization  which 
make  for  the  energy,  the  usefulness,  the  happiness  of 
men. 

As  to  the  Church — just  bear  with  me  for  a  moment 
— when  I  speak  of  that,  you  will  not,  of  course,  take 
me  up  in  the  Roman  or  the  English  sense.  I  do  not 
mean  any  privileged  enclave  of  which  the  governor 
is  a  padre  and  in  which  the  sheep  are  sheep  indeed. 
I  mean  a  spiritual  community,  purely  spiritual,  of  men 
and  women  gathered  together  for  the  sake  of  One  who, 
however  small  their  numbers,  has  promised  to  be  in 
their  midst.  Such  men  and  women  have  laid  upon  them 
not  merely  the  delights  of  a  profound  faith  and  a  glorious 
hope,  but  the  duty  and  responsibilities  of  themselves 


68  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

witnessing  and  working.  For  them  to  shoulder  that  some- 
times irksome  task  on  to  the  clergy  as  a  clerical  affair — 
that  would  be  mean. 

There  was  a  democracy  for  you !  Well,  it  was  in  this 
school  of  thought  and  duty  that  I  was  brought  up. 

The  worst  is  yet  to  come.  Bad  enough  to  be  a  Presby- 
terian. But  was  I  of  those  eminent  and  respected 
Presbyterians  whose  Church  was  under  the  patronage  and 
control  of  the  State,  to  which  so  many  of  the  nobility  and 
landed  gentry  belonged  until  they  too  in  more  fashion- 
able times  "  lapsed  "  into  Episcopacy  ?  Not  even  that. 
My  ancestry,  my  upbringing,  my  beliefs,  were  all  with  a 
set  of  pious,  able  and  determined  men  called  United 
Presbyterians.  Happy  memories  of  your  childhood  and 
youth  recall  them,  and  perhaps  some  time  I  may  tell  you 
how  they  appeared  to  myself.  But  farther  back  than 
they,  the  same  class  of  thinkers  was  called  the  Secession. 
But  (now  you  must  not  be  too  proud !)  my  heart  and  faith 
went  farther  back  still :  I  believe  I  must  have  been  an 
Anti-burgher ! 

Once  upon  a  time  (1596)  the  Reformation  principles 
were  being  played  fast  and  loose  with  by  a  Scottish  King 
with,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  an  accommodating  spirit.  And 
the  story  is  well  known  how  at  Falkland  Andrew  Melville 
answered  the  false  claim  of  prerogative,  plucking  the 
monarch  by  the  sleeve,  and  declaring :  "  There  are  two 
Kings  and  two  Kingdoms  in  Scotland.  There  is  Christ 
Jesus  the  King,  and  His  Kingdom,  the  Kirk,  whose  sub- 
ject King  James  the  Sixth  is,  and  of  whose  Kingdom  not 
a  king,  nor  a  lord,  nor  a  head,  but  a  member."  Well 
done,  Andrew  Melville !  Sure  am  I  that,  if  he  had  been 
spared,  he  would  have  been  an  Anti-burgher ! 


WORSE  THAN   AN   INFIDEL  69 

Once  when  I  was  Solicitor-General  for  Scotland,  I  had 
to  take  a  turn  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  some  Church 
subject.  Being  in  a  rollicking  mood,  and  seeing  before 
me  quite  a  galaxy  of  Tory  Churchmen,  I  condoled  with 
them.  When  they  came  north  of  the  Tweed  every 
mother's  son  of  them  would  be  a  Dissenter !  The  old 
wheeze !  But  it  hit  them  hard,  with  wonder  and  with 
merriment.  Sir  Richard  Temple  tendered  me  his  most 
courtly  felicitations  ! 

One  of  the  duties  of  this  same  Solicitor-General,  by 
the  by,  was  that  he  should  be  in  attendance  on  the  Lord 
High  Commissioner  to  the  Church  of  Scotland,  the  tradi- 
tional task  being,  on  the  King's  behalf,  to  watch  out  for 
ecclesiastical  pretensions !  This  gave  rise  to  fun.  When 
the  dear  Lord  Advocate  Balfour  was  asked  in  the 
Commons  lobby  what  had  become  of  his  Solicitor-General, 
he  replied  :  "  Well,  you  see,  ah !  he  is  bowing  down  in% 
the  Temple  of  Rimmon."  And  the  wags  of  the  Parliament 
House  maintained  that  when  my  carriage  drove  up  in  the 
procession  towards  the  General  Assembly,  the  band  struck 
up  the  refrain  :  "  'E  doan'  know  where  'e  are  !  " 

But  all  this  is  cutting  far  beyond  the  point,  namely, 
the  events  and  aspects  of  the  young  advocate's  life.  Well, 
one  of  those  aspects  was  this  direct  point  of  early  religious 
training.  When  Milton  wrote  of  Sir  Harry  Vane — 

"  The  bounds  of  either  sword  to  thee  we  owe," 
and — 

"  Both  spiritual  things  and  civil,  what  each  means, 
What  severs  each,  thou  hast  learned,  which  few  have  known," 

he  was  pronouncing  in  immortal  words  the  eloge  of  human 
penetration  on  one  of  the  most  delicate  and  profound 
problems  which  will  remain  to  torment  or  to  inspire  public 


70  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

men,  until  the  political  stage  is  reached  of  the  separation 
— as  in  America  and  throughout  our  colonial  empire — of 
Church  and  State. 

Well,  that,  of  course,  was  a  problem  which  came  my 
way.  My  own  view,  and  the  view  of  those  able,  far-sighted 
men  with  whom  I  worked  in  Church  Courts  as  on  wider 
fields,  was  that  the  Church  simply  said  to  the  State  : 
"  Hands  off !  We  will  not  have  your  control.  We  will 
not  take  your  money."  This  we  thought  was  the  best, 
infinitely  the  best,  on  the  spiritual  as  well  as  on  the  civil 
side. 

Thus  I  became  a  Disestablisher,  and  worse  than  that, 
a  Disendower  :  mark  that  last.  And  so  prejudices  came 
along,  perhaps  prejudices  on  either  side,  and  men  said 
fiercely  that  I  was  the  associate  of  agnostics,  of  atheists, 
of  infidels.  This  last  fell  very  flat.  We  remembered  the 
apostolic  rejoinder  which  McDowall  of  Alloa  had  taught 
us,  that  there  were  worse  men  than  infidels.  "  He  that 
provideth  not  for  his  own,  and  specially  for  those  of  his 
own  house,  he  hath  denied  the  faith  and  is  worse  than 
an  infidel."  And  those  who  knew  me  better — well,  they 
didn't  use  the  stupid  taunt,  or  any  taunt.  Yet  if  you  had 
known  the  Edinburgh  of  the  time  of  which  I  speak,  you 
would  have  realized  what  it  meant  to  hold  such  views. 

It  was  plain  that  politics  and  public  life  were  looming 

in  the  near  future  for 

Your  ever  loving 

FATHER. 


LETTER    XIII 

THROUGH    THE    'EIGHTIES 

Craigmyle. 

August  1 8,  1920. 

MY  DEAR  DAUGHTER  ISABEL, 

Tired  of  exciting  epistles?  Well,  then,  let  me  write 
you  a  restful  letter. 

These  two  months  in  town  have  been  lonely  enough 
in  all  conscience.  Yet  the  judicial  work  was  engrossing, 
and  it  had  that  interest  which  sprang  from  being  an  after- 
mafti  of  the  Great  War. 

Why  did  great  vessels,  for  instance,  steam  through 
the  darkness  without  lights,  and  add  in  this  and  many  ways 
new  perils  to  the  deep?  Why?  Simply  because  they 
had  to,  by  order  of  the  Admiralty.  They  and  their  cargo 
were  precious  to  our  people.  Hundreds  of  millions  of 
pounds  sterling  were  afloat  on  seas  infested  by  German 
submarines.  And  the  enemy  had  abjured  the  duties  of 
capture  and  condemnation  of  ship  and  cargo  as  prize,  and 
of  the  rescue  of  shipwrecked  passengers  and  crew.  Ger- 
many had  abandoned  the  traditions  of  civilized  war  and 
made  a  new  code  of  terror  for  the  traffic  of  the  sea. 

To  meet  this  code,  a  vast  energy  of  watchfulness  was 
developed  by  our  fleet  and  a  vast  energy  of  heroism  by 
our  beloved  sailormen  :  while  from  places  like  the  Moray 
Firth,  over  there  across  the  hills,  there  went  one  of  the 
glories  of  the  war — those  great  crews  of  mine-sweepers — 

7i 


72 

modest,  patient,  skilled,  unwearied  men,  who  by  day 
and  by  night,  in  calm  and  in  storm,  showed  the  stuff  of 
which  patriotism  is  made  and  were  the  saviours  of  our 
country. 

All  these  things,  remember,  were  disciplined.  With- 
out that,  all  would  have  been  lost.  Thus  there  came 
stern,  clever,  minute  Regulations  of  the  Admiralty,  sup- 
ported alike  by  prudence,  by  the  common  interest,  and 
by  the  instant  sanction  of  force.  Courses  were  changed  : 
sailing  orders  were  given  for  traversing  great  spaces  of 
the  sea  which  in  normal  times  the  prudent  navigator  would 
avoid  :  lights  on  shore  and  on  shipboard  were  dowsed  : 
vessels  were  put  under  convoy — taking  their  course  and 
points  of  the  compass  from  its  commander.  And  that 
commander  had  the  power  and  had  the  right  to  fire  on, 
and  to  sink,  offending,  disobedient  craft. 

This  vast  new  code  or  counter-code  of  the  sea  pro- 
duced— as  every  new  code  does — a  crop  of  problems  of 
its  own.  So  our  dear  bright  friend  Sir  Samuel  Evans 
earned  a  great  renown,  in  shaping  and  applying  old  codes 
and  new,  and  so  he  wore  out  his  brilliant  life.  And  to  us 
in  the  Privy  Council  and  the  House  of  Lords  there  came 
difficulties  neither  few  nor  slight  in  solving  puzzles,  such 
as,  for  instance  :  which  ship  was  to  blame,  or  were  both, 
for  a  collision  when  both  were  sailing  without  lights,  or 
under  convoy?  Did  the  calamities  spring  from  marine 
risks,  or  from  warlike  operations?  and  so  on  and  so  on; 
millions  hanging  in  the  balance  of  this  way  or  that  in  the 
solutions,  with  sometimes  great  insurance  corporations  in 
the  background,  and  always  in  the  foreground  the  most 
brilliant  of  advocacy.  And  even  as  we  fingered  the  bulky 
volumes,  a  hint,  a  reference,  an  allusion,  would  suddenly 


THROUGH   THE   'EIGHTIES  73 

touch  a  spring;  and,  away  beyond  law  cases,  and  codes 
and  codeless  destruction,  tragedies  unfolded  to  imagina- 
tion's eye  and  ear  :  the  watchers'  straining  senses,  the 
tearing  of  the  torpedo  in  the  entrails  of  the  innocent,  heroic 
merchantman,  the  wrestling  with  doom,  and  even 

"The  cry 
Of  some  strong  swimmer  in  his  agony." 

Then  in  a  moment  the  spring  recoiled  and  one  was 
back  again  to  duty  and  to  legal  issues.  They  were  not 
tiresome,  but  they  were  troublesome  and  tough.  And  that, 
my  dear,  must  be  my  excuse  if  I  have  failed  to  keep  my 
promise  to  go  on  writing  and  telling  you  about  things 
long  past. 


If  I  remember  rightly,  my  recountings  had  not  reached 
the  period  when  you  arrived  on  the  scene  to  brighten  all 
our  lives.  The  legal  years  of  the  'eighties  have  left  few 
impressions  which  are  vivid.  I  have  no  memory  for 
drudgery.  I  suppose  it  would  be  possible  by  consulting 
fee-books  and  the  like  to  make  up  a  kind  of  record;  but 
with  all  respect  to  some  very,  very  eminent  lawyer  friends 
of  mine,  now  deceased,  what  would  be  the  use  of  that  to 
any  mortal?  Was  I  earning  more  money  from  year  to 
year  ?  Were  there  fine  solicitors  standing  by  me  ?  and  had 
they  good  businesses?,  and  had  I  compliments  from  this 
quarter  or  rebukes  from  that  ?  Oh  !  dear,  dear,  the  idea 
of  any  sensible  man,  even  a  father,  taking  the  trouble  to 
write  down  the  like  of  that  ! 

I  do  not  deny  that  drudgery  there  was.  Yes,  indeed  ; 
but  why  not?  There  are  two  ways  of  it  to  a  practising 
lawyer:  either  to  treat  work  as  duty,  and  to  tackle  it 


74  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

accordingly,  preserving  equanimity  and,  if  possible,  a 
gaiety  of  mind;  or  to  shirk  it  as  an  undeserved  sentence 
of  penal  servitude.  This  last  means  "  giving  in,"  and 
I  was  not  brought  up  that  way.  Whereas  the  other  way 
—what  happy  inducements  there  were  that  I  should 
follow  it !  "  Fame,"  says  Milton, 

"  Fame  is  the  spur  that  the  clear  spirit  doth  raise 
To  scorn  delights  and  live  laborious  days." 

There  is  something  in  that,  no  doubt,  but  not  so  much 
as  men  think.  There  are  two  passages  in  Burns  which 
come  nearer  to  the  actual  life  of  the  barrister  both  north 
and  south  of  the  Tweed  than  most  people  unacquainted 
with  the  early  struggles  of  such  men  would  dream  of  : 

"  To   gather   gear   by    every    wile 
That's  justified  by  honour." 

That,  of  course,  stamps  character  upon  achievement. 
But  the  other  is  a  tenderer  and  more  inspiring  wish  : — 

"  To  mak'  a  happy  fireside  clime 

For  weans  and  wife — 
That's  the  true  pathos  and   sublime 
Of  human  life." 

"  Oh  !  hoity,  toity,"  exclaim  the  miraculous  persons, 
applauded  by  all  sorts  of  affectation  and  the  shallow 
mind.  "  We  believe  in  genius;  it  is  for  such  that  the  pro- 
fessions were  made ;  but — stuff  like  that :  never  !  ''  And, 
mark  you  :  all  the  time  they  believe  nothing  of  the  sort; 
all  the  time  they  know  that  hard  work,  drudgery  if 
you  will,  and  drudgery  manfully  faced,  that  the  rub  is 
there. 

For  fame's  sake?  Well,  perhaps  so,  in  one  case  out 
of  a  score.  And  the  other  nineteen  cases?  What  do 


THROUGH  THE   'EIGHTIES  75 

they  say  about  them  ?  Year  in,  year  out,  the  steadfast 
shouldering  of  work  and  care,  what  was  its  secret?  Ah  ! 
it  is  the  Latin  tag  that  tells  the  truth  :  "  Res  angustce 
domi"  Yes,  my  dear,  that  is  it.  That  is  the  secret,  that 
is  the  spur.  It  accounts  for  the  nineteen  cases. 

Upon  the  whole,  the  Bench  of  the  United  Kingdom 
has  sufficient  experience  to  know  this,  and  so  has  sufficient 
imagination  to  feel  that  an  advocate's  task,  faithfully  per- 
formed and  thus  inspired,  demands  and  deserves  respect, 
consideration,  sympathy.  And  for  that  reason,  as  well  as 
for  the  sake  of  jurisprudence  as  the  marshalled  search 
for  justice,  it  has  always  appeared  to  me  that  the  treat- 
ment by  a  great  Bench  of  the  presentment  of  an  uphill 
case  by  a  great  Bar  is  a  study  in  those  higher  ethics  where 
truth  and  courtesy  are  rich  and  shining  things.  And  when 
again,  either  in  the  case  of  judge  or  counsel,  to  know- 
ledge and  fidelity  are  added  culture  and  imagination,  then 
indeed  justice  is  justified  of  her  children  and  jurisprudence 
comes  to  its  own. 

Sometimes  through  the  'eighties  and  through  all  that 
drudgery  of  which  I  have  no  memory,  thoughts  of  that 
sort,  in  the  watching  and  measuring  of  judicial  procedure, 
drifted  through  the  mind,  and  ideals  were  revealed. 
"  Who  is  sufficient  for  these  things  ?  "  I  said  it  so  often 
during  those  toilsome  years;  and  I  say  so  still. 

Have  I  told  you  nothing  in  this  letter?  Have  I  drifted 
unwarrantably  from  what  the  philosophers  call  the  objec- 
tive to  the  subjective?  Well,  the  mist  is  on  the  hills  and 
great  clouds  are  drifting  down  the  valley  from  Braemar, 
and  the  grouse  are  too  wild,  and,  as  I  have  been  sitting 
in  the  library,  my  memory  has  yielded  little  to  recount 
from  a  decade  which  is  blank.  So  the  thoughts  have 


76  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

turned  inward,  and  instead  of  description  and  action  you 
have  simply  musing  :  musing,  not  on  the  outward  be- 
wildering events  of  to-day's  bewildered  world,  but  musing 
just  as  the  thoughts  deploy  from  the  past  and  as  they 
are  felt  in  the  quiet  by  a  thankful  heart. 

Your  loving 

FATHER. 


LETTER    XIV 

ENTER    MR.    GLADSTONE 

Craigmyle. 

August  25,  1920. 
MY  DEAR  LASS, 

When  I  wrote  to  you  the  other  day  about  the  blank 
of  memory  in  the  'eighties,  I  was  thinking  of  the  law. 

As  to  other  things,  and  notably  to  public  affairs — how 
far  indeed  from  humdrum  were  they !  Then  was  a  time 
to  be  alive.  Times  of  war  fire  the  blood.  But  there  are  also 
crises  when,  in  the  political  sphere,  new  ideas  or  a  new 
summons  seem  to  break  over  the  nation  like  a  cataract. 
Such  a  period  was  the  first  Midlothian  campaign.  The 
stir  of  such  conflicts,  their  enthusiasms,  their  challenges 
and  replies  :  of  all  these  Midlothian  was  the  centre.  How 
vivid  were  the  points  and  explosions  and  outbreaks  of 
that  splendid  storm ! 

The  judgment  of  men  on  such  things  undergoes,  it 
may  be,  changes,  even  transformations  :  men's  passions 
may  then  have  warped  their  opinions  :  they  may  now  think 
a  different  temperament  more  philosophical :  they  may 
even  forget  that  opinions  are  also  warped  by  shivering 
hesitations  and  recurrent  chills. 

I  speak  with  intimate  knowledge  at  least  of  Scotland 
during  that  period;  but  of  course — thinking  back  to  my 
own  impressions — I  should  surprise  many  people  by  say- 
ing that  the  large  outstanding  facts  were  two.  Two  great 

77 


78  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

subjects  of  public  life  there  were  which  were  swept  back 
again,  by  profound  personal  appeal,  into  the  region  of 
private  interest,  private  responsibility  and  private  duty. 
The  first  of  these  was  finance.  It  was  restored  to  a  rank 
and  level  which  it  had  not  occupied  since  1846.  The 
second,  of  course,  was  foreign  policy.  It  was  restored 
to  a  rank  and  level  which  it  had  not  occupied  since  1853. 
Men  were  sternly  shown  how  errors  in  either  of  those 
departments  come  home.  Men  felt  then,  as  they  do  to- 
day, that  it  was  so,  that  it  must  be  so  :  but  then,  as  now, 
there  was  need  of  a  prophet,  and,  in  that  day,  the  prophet 
came. 

At  the  time  of  the  Corn  Law  Repeal  men  had  been 
accustomed  to  think  deeply  of  Budgets,  of  the  foundations 
of  economics.  In  the  lowlands  of  Scotland,  and  in  many 
very  humble  homes,  these  things  and  the  views  of  Adam 
Smith  were  frequent  topics  of  canvass.  So  also  with 
foreign  affairs.  There  remained  even  in  the  'fifties  which 
I  can  remember  a  serious  concern  with  our  Eastern  policy, 
and  not  a  little  wondering  whether  Bright,  mocked  in  the 
war  fever  of  his  time  as  a  pro-Russian,  had  not  been 
nearer  than  militarist  passion  to  truth  and  to  good  sense. 
These  were  the  wonder  and  concern  of  a  large  and  faith- 
ful body  of  men — men  accustomed  to  test  life  by  ethical 
standards,  men  drilled  in  Christian  doctrine.  When  states- 
men ignore  such  men,  politics  are  lowered. 

Well,  Isabel,  it  was  to  the  sons  and  grandsons  of 
such  men  that  Mr.  Gladstone  made  his  first  famous 
pilgrimage  in  the  end  of  1879.  And  when  the  new  decade 
came  along,  it  was  ushered  in  among  crowds  of  persons, 
of  whom  your  father  was  one,  who  were  moved,  not  to 
admiration  alone  and  a  swaying  of  the  mind,  but  to  a 


ENTER  MR.   GLADSTONE  79 

deeper  sense  of  the  responsibility  of  the  individual  citizen 
as  a  sharer,  however  humble,  in  his  country's  destiny. 

Take  down,  as  I  know  you  have  done,  Morley's  "  Life 
of  Gladstone,"  and  you  will  find  all  these  things  infinitely 
better  said.  Morley  is  a  Stoic.  A  Stoic  is  a  man  who 
is  afraid  to  let  himself  go.  A  man  who  is  afraid  to  let 
himself  go  might  be  apt,  if  he  were  not  so  big  a  man  as 
Morley — apt  to  become  a  poseur.  But  you  see  how,  when 
the  great  biographer  reaches  the  early  Midlothian  cam- 
paigns, such  a  temptation  never  came  nigh  those  memor- 
able days  :  his  language  grows  warm  and  glowing. 

But  I  am  not  quite  sure  that  even  Lord  Morley  under- 
stands the  kind  of  seed-time  that  these  speeches  were 
for  our  younger  manhood.  In  the  case  of  myself  and 
many,  many  more,  we  make  no  pretence  or  secret  about 
it :  they  swept  us  after  the  sower  into  public  life,  to  share, 
however  humbly,  the  labcurs  of  the  field. 

Ah  !  how  well,  even  *n  a  few  years,  I  was  to  know 
that  to  admire  Mr.  Gladstone,  to  revere  him,  to  be  con- 
vinced, moved,  impelled,  arrested,  by  him — to  do  or  to 
be  these  things,  was  to  be  esteemed  a  weakling,  or  far 
worse,  by  most  superior  circles. 

You  have  really  no  idea  of  the  resentments  which  were 
felt  in  such  quarters.  No  doubt  this  senselessness  is  pass- 
ing away.  The  events  of  Ireland,  for  .example,  during 
the  past  few  years  have  produced  a  visible  revulsion  of 
opinion  in  favour  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  patriotism,  his  true 
moderation,  his  immense  sagacity,  in  that  very  chapter 
of  his  history  for  which  the  circles  aforesaid  held  him 
heartily  reprobate.  The  blindness  of  England  !  A  policy 
of  healing  rejected,  rejected  again,  rejected  with  con- 
tempt; then  accepted,  accepted  helplessly,  but  accepted 


8o 

too   late  !      England's   blindness  !      Yes  :    the  misery  of 

Ireland ! 

***** 

But  I  cut  before  the  point.  There  was  no  Liberal 
Home  Rule  policy  then.  The  greatest  questions  of  the 
day  were,  as  I  say,  foreign  policy  and  finance.  I  am 
recalling  the  first  day  of  the  first  Midlothian  campaign. 

I  was  seated  in  a  far-away  corner  of  the  Edinburgh 
Music  Hall — to  the  orator's  extreme  right,  but  with  a 
good  view  of  him  and  of  the  scene.  The  building  was, 
of  course,  ridiculously  small  for  the  requirements  of  the 
occasion.  Every  chord — curiosity,  enthusiasm,  criticism, 
determination,  watchfulness — every  chord  was  tensely 
strung.  General  political  interest  appeared  to  be  con- 
centrated in  that  one  room  as  from  many  nations  of  Europe 
and  the  four  quarters  of  the  English-speaking  world; 
while  to  this  the  local  spice  was  added  of  an  attack  upon 
the  Buccleugh  in  his  own  citadel. 

My  own  thoughts,  I  confess,  took  a  turn  of  a  more 
historical  and  personal  kind;  they  were  broken  by  each 
extra  spasm  of  the  surrounding  excitement.  We  were 
about  to  see  the  man  who  in  the  darkest  hours  of  Italian 
history  had  written  those  daring  exposures  of  the  horrors 
of  Neapolitan  prisons  which  had  inspired  with  new  life 
and  hope  the  great  patriots  of  Italy,  and  had  driven  King 
Bomba  from  his  throne.  Years  had  passed  since  Tennyson 
in  "  In  Memoriam "  had  made  Arthur  Hallam's  death 
immortal;  and  just  in  there,  from  under  that  gallery,  there 
was  coming  to  speak  to  us  the  intimate  associate  of  Arthur 
Hallam.  Here  came  the  great  survivor,  the  friend  and 
coadjutor  of  Peel,  of  Lord  John  Russell,  of  Cobden  and 
Cavour,  and  Mazzini. 


ENTER   MR.   GLADSTONE  81 

There  was  a  rustle  of  anticipation,  and  all  faces  turned 
towards  the  expected  comer. 

He  had  known  the  inside  and  the  chair  of  the  great 
offices  of  State — Board  of  Trade,  Treasury  and  all. 

Then  there  was  a  roar  of  cheering  from  the  thousands 
in  the  streets  outside,  and  the  thoughts  grew  disturbed. 

But  still,  was  it  not  the  very  man  who  had  risen  from 
being  the  greatest  of  Chancellors  of  the  Exchequer  to 
being  the  greatest  of  Prime  Ministers? 

Well  then,  there  he  was,  entering  with  a  dignified, 
sure,  but  rather  swift  step,  very  calm  and  serene, 
but  with  a  searching  eye  of  fire.  This  is  all  that 
I  can  remember  of  it  till  the  immense  hubbub  of  the 
welcome  sank,  and,  after  a  moment  or  two  of  hushed 
waiting,  he  rose  to  begin  his  vast  task  of  the  campaign. 

The  numerous  portraits  of  Mr.  Gladstone  represent 
his  exterior  marvellously  well,  with  more  grip  of  the  man 
in  his  solid  greatness  than  is  usually  secured  !  I  had 
more  than  one  opportunity  of  observation  of  him  at  close 
quarters,  and  in  a  few  days  I  shall  send  you  some  notes 
taken  at  the  time — between  30  and  40  years  ago — descrip- 
tive of  his  private  conversational  powers.  But  the  truth 
is  that  for  me  neither  portrait  nor  picture  can,  of  course, 
ever  reproduce  that  fact  of  marked  significance  which 
the  memory  tenaciously  retains,  which  I  may  call  "  speech 
and  the  man." 

I  am  recalling  that  fact  now,  that  unusual  responsive- 
ness of  body  to  mind,  giving  a  vividness  to  description, 
a  charm  to  narrative,  a  magnetic  penetration  to  those 
feelings,  whether  of  alarm,  satisfaction,  suspicion,  pleasure 
or  conviction,  which  he  wished  to  convey  from  his 
own  personality  to  that  of  the  hearer.  The  hearer,  the 


82  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

beholder,  was  made  in  truth  a  listener  with  ears  and 
eyes. 

I  need  not  say  that  the  gestures  which  conveyed  this 
responsiveness  were  aided  by  his  muscular  development. 
The  head,  massive  as  the  portraits  show,  but  deeper  and 
broader  behind  than  one  would  have  thought  when  one 
watched  the  swiftness  of  its  movements — the  head  was 
supported  by  broad  and  supple  and,  for  an  old  man,  very 
square  shoulders ;  and  the  whole  mass  of  the  body  upwards 
from  the  toes,  and  outwards  to  the  finger-tips — everything 
moved  or  was  rigid  according  to  the  command  of  the 
thought  within.  One  quite  peculiar  gesture  he  had.  He 
would  stretch  his  arm  to  the  right,  then  swiftly  cover  the 
back  of  his  right  hand  with  the  palm  of  the  left :  as  the 
other  side  of  the  picture  opened  he  would  swing  the  whole 
body  to  the  left,  distending  the  left  arm  and  covering  the 
left  hand  with  the  right.  He  pointed  in  this  way  the 
contrast  which  he  argued;  and  he  seemed  to  give  to  anti- 
thesis a  living  human  shape. 

Now  that  is  quite  enough  for  one  evening.  I  was 
meaning  to  wind  up  with  some  lighter  stuff  about 
journalism  and  so  on,  but  no  :  I  confess  that  these  old 
impressions  still  move  me.  The  sun  is  setting  over  Loch- 
nagar.  This  world  is  a  very  beautiful  world.  Good  night. 

Your  own 

TRUE  THOMAS. 


LETTER    XV 

THE    ELOQUENT   IN    TALK 

Craigmyle. 

August  29,  1920. 
ISABEL  DEAR, 

When  I  wrote  to  you  last  I  mentioned  a  conversation 
that  I  had  had  with  Mr.  Gladstone,  which  I  had  written 
out  at  length.  Well,  I  have  been  rummaging  among  old 
papers,  and  I  have  got  the  sheets. 

Seldom  or  never  have  I  taken  down  such  things  at 
the  time.  But  friends,  to  whom  I  recounted  the  talk  next 
day,  were  insistent  that  I  should  do  so ;  and  now  I  am  glad 
that  I  did.  You,  however,  will  judge. 

The  first  sheet  of  the  paper  is  unfortunately  missing. 
It  stated  the  occasion  and  the  setting.  If  I  remember 
aright,  the  occasion  was  during,  say,  the  third  Midlothian 
campaign. 

Mr.  Gladstone  was  then  staying  with  the  Dean  of 
Faculty  Balfour,  afterwards  my  dear  chief  as  Lord 
Advocate,  and  thereafter,  as  Lord  Kinross,  Lord  Presi- 
dent of  the  Court  of  Session.  The  place  of  the  dinner 
was  Balfour's  house  at  Rothesay  Place,  Edinburgh.  The 
guests  numbered  about  a  dozen.  I  cannot  remember  their 
names,  but  they  included  prospective  Liberal  candidates, 
of  whom  I  think  I  must  have  been  one.  The  year  probably 

1890. 

***** 

83 


84  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

The  notes  proceed  : — 

Throughout  the  evening  he  was  in  great,  almost  tur- 
bulent spirits,  and  he  broke  out  at  once  : 

"  Mrs.  Balfour,  I  have  to-day  seen  a  wonderful  sight. 
I  said  to  Mr.  Nelson  ere  I  left  him  this  afternoon  that  I 
envied  him  and  wished  that  it  were  in  my  power  to  carry 
away  with  me  that  most  marvellous  and  majestic  view 
which  he  has  from  his  dining-room  window.  There  rises 
all  the  splendour  of  Arthur's  Seat  and  there  stand  the 
Salisbury  £rags.  Wonderful !  " 

All  this  ere  we  had  left  the  drawing-room.  As  we 
filed  downstairs — he  leading  the  way — we  heard  his  voice 
reverberating,  the  pauses  being  filled  up  by  the  ripple 
of  repartee  which  his  sprightliness  evoked.  This  con- 
tinued all  through  the  dinner. 

I  sat  below  Mr.  Herbert  Gladstone,  and  looked  at  the 
aged  statesman  diagonally  across  the  table.  He  domin- 
ated and  enthralled  everybody,  the  lightest  modulations 
of  his  voice  having  a  sonorous  depth,  and  the  mobility 
of  his  face,  and  in  particular  the  blazing  brilliance  of  his 
eyes  in  his  serious  moments,  alternating  in  other  moods 
with  their  apparent  contraction  to  a  needle's  point  glimmer- 
ing with  merriment,  were  a  constant  study. 

Few  of  us,  however,  could  catch  much  until  the  ladies 
retired,  and  then,  indeed,  began  the  serious  business  of 
the  evening.  "  Perhaps,"  said  Herbert  to  me,  "  you 
should  take  my  place;  you  will  want  to  hear  my  father 
talk."  I  gratefully  assented,  and  we  changed  seats,  I 
being  then  within  four  feet  of  his  father. 

As  the  conversation  proceeded,  this  one  peculiarity 
became  marked,  namely,  that  when  a  statement  might  have 
seemed  too  abstract,  or  a  recollection  too  bare,  he  would 


85 

instantly  give  it  body  and  dress  by  the  phrase  "  /  will 
give  you  an  instance"  the  utterance  of  which  would  rivet 
the  attention  of  everyone  present. 

The  Dean  alluded  to  his  visit  to  Mr.  Nelson's. 

"  Yes,"  said  Mr.  Gladstone,  "  I  recollect  well  their 
father's  place  of  business.  You  ascended  to  it  from  the 
Grassmarket,  and  following  up  essay  after  essay  "  (waving 
with  his  hand)  "  you  heard  at  each  storey  the  clang-clang 
of  the  coppersmith.  I  happen  to  have  a  most  capricious 
memory.  I  will  give  you  an  instance  :  For  there,  in  the 
year  1826,  I  well  remember  purchasing,  from  old  Mr. 
Nelson,  Isaac  Barrow's  Sermons  in  five  volumes  at  the 
price  of  263." 

The  reminiscence  led  on  to  the  subject  of  old  Scottish 
literature;  and  Mr.  Gladstone  expressed  the  desire  that 
greater  effort  should  be  made  for  its  full  and  exact 
reproduction. 

"  No  doubt,"  said  the  Dean,  "  it  might  require  to  some 
extent  to  be  expurgated." 

"  Ah  !  "  said  Mr.  Gladstone,  "  but  I  refer  to  its  repro- 
duction on  a  limited  scale,  for  the  use  of  some  of  your 
learned  or  Text  Societies,  rather  than  for  popular  con- 
sumption. And  as  for  that  matter  of  expurgation,  a  great 
change  has  come  over  the  public  taste  even  in  compara- 
tively recent  times — of  which  I  give  you  an  instance.  It 
would,  I  dare  say,  be  hazardous  to  issue  in  our  day  for 
popular  use  a  full  edition  of  the  works  even  of  Richard 
Baxter — Richard  Baxter  the  divine  !  " 

"  By  the  way,"  he  added,  "  I  do  wonder  that  the  trans- 
lation of  the  entire  Scriptures  in  verse  by  Zachary  Boyd 
has  never  seen  the  light.  I  have  a  most  capricious 
memory.  It  is  now  forty  years  ago  since  the  late  Dr. 


86  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

Robert  Lee  conducted  me  through  the  University  of 
Glasgow,  and  in  the  Library  of  that  University  he  showed 
to  me  this  work  of  Zachary  Boyd.  I  opened  it  at  the 
prophet  Jonah,  and  I  still  remember  the  four  lines  which 
I  read,  and  which,  if  you  wish  it,  I  will  now  repeat  to  you." 
Of  course  we  wished  it.  And  then,  with  twinkling  eyes 
and  a  fine  mockery  of  gravity,  he  repeated  these  words  : 

"  Whin  Jonah's  whaul  began  to  spew, 
Thinks  Jonah,,  What's  adae  the  noo? 
Here's  nather  room  for  coal  nor  cawnle, 
There's  naethingf  but  fish-guts  to  haunle  !  " 

After  the  explosion  of  laughter  had  subsided,  we 
drifted  from  literature  on  to  the  subject  of  printing,  when 
he  startled  us  by  saying,  with  much  seriousness  :  "  In  the 
period  which  most  of  you  will  remember  as  the  Jingo 
period,  no  less  distinguished  and  able  a  man  than  the 
present  Lord  Derby  said  of  the  Montenegrins  that  they 
were  a  half-savage  people.  Now  I  will  give  you  an  in- 
stance. More  than  400  years  ago  the  Montenegrins  were 
overwhelmed  by  the  devastating  power  of  the  Turk,  and 
were  driven  to  their  fastnesses  in  the  mountains  and  the 
rocks;  from  which  inaccessible  fastnesses  for  the  space 
of  400  years  they  have  continued  to  wave  the  flag  of 
freedom  in  the  face  of  the  Turk.  Now,  what  did  they 
carry  with  them  to  the  mountains  and  the  rocks  ?  They 
carried  with  them  their  printing-presses ;  and  this  fourteen 
years  before  ever  a  printing-press  was  seen  in  Scotland ! 
Thus  far  for  Lord  Derby's  view  that  the  Montenegrins 
are  a  half-savage  people  !  " 

About  this  stage  Provost  Cazenove  was  ushered  in, 
and  Mr.  Gladstone  and  he  were  soon  immersed  in  dis- 
cussions about  the  Tractarian  movement,  and  about 


THE  ELOQUENT   IN   TALK  87 

Oxford  in  the  days — as  old  Dr.  Cazenove  amusingly 
admitted — before  he  knew  it. 

The  conversation  became  more  general,  Mr.  Gladstone 
leading  on  the  subject  of  Dr.  Dollinger  and  trie  late 
Catholic  movement  in  Germany;  this,  again,  raising  the 
subject  of  the  movement  in  Catholic  circles  against  the 
restraints  of  the  vows  of  celibacy  in  the  priesthood.  Upon 
this  he  remarked  :  "  I  remember  having  to  spend — a  good 
many  years  ago — some  period  in  Paris;  and  there  I  had 
occasion  to  hear  the  attitude  of  Pere  Hyacinthe  frequently 
discussed;  and  I  am  bound  to  confess  that  the  position 
of  society  in  Paris — not  Roman  Catholic  society,  not 
Protestant  society,  but  all  society — was  one  not  of  regret 
merely,  but  of  positive  disgust  at  the  conduct  of  Pere 
Hyacinthe." 

"  But,"  someone  aptly  remarked,  "  did  not  Luther  say 
that  unless  he,  a  monk,  married  a  nun,  nobody  would  have 
the  good  sense  to  follow  his  precepts  ?  " 

"  Ah,"  said  Mr.  Gladstone,  with  a  shrewd  smile,  and 
his  eyes  glimmering,  "  Luther  was  a  dare-devil  sort  of 
a  fellow !  " 

As  we  left  the  dining-room,  he  paused  until  someone 
fetched  him  his  black  walking-cane,  with  the  aid  of  which 
he  ascended  to  the  drawing-room,  we  painfully  contrast- 
ing the  weakness  of  his  physical  condition  with  the  vigour 
and  vivacity  of  his  mental  and  conversational  powers. 

We  were  introduced  to  him  in  turn.  As  one  of  our 
number  (who  shall  be  nameless)  was  presented  to  him, 
with  a  head  not  large  by  any  means,  and  gleaming  in  its 
baldness,  Mr.  Gladstone,  moved  by  some  fit,  no  doubt,  of 
association  of  ideas,  got  the  conversation  on  to  the  subject 
of  heads  and  their  varying  sizes.  "  I  am  told,"  said  he, 


88  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

"  that  the  largest  size  of  heads  to  be  found  in  these  islands 
is  in  Aberdeen.  Mr.  Cooper,  of  the  Scotsman — in  those 
days  (with  a  smile)  when  the  Scotsman  pursued  a  sound 
and  sensible  policy — related  to  me  an  anecdote.  He 
himself  has  a  large  head,  so  large  that  upon  one  occasion 
no  size  in  the  front  department  of  a  hatter's  shop  could 
be  found  to  fit  it;  whereupon  the  hatter  called  (in  Mr. 
Cooper's  hearing)  to  his  assistant  in  the  back  shop, '  Jimmy, 
bring  me  the  Aberdeen  size!  ' 

I  was  anxious  to  have  his  opinion  of  some  of  the  great 
lawyers  of  his  time,  and  practically  he  himself  led  on  to 
the  theme  by  inquiries  as  to  literary  pursuits  by  members 
of  the  legal  profession.  I  said  to  him  that,  although  the 
prejudice  against  these  was  dying  hard,  I  thought  it  was 
unquestionably  dying.  For  one  thing,  citing  from  my  own 
experience,  I  was  aware  that  the  present  Lord  President 
(Inglis)  always  relished  the  citation  of  the  opinions  of 
Lord  Jeffrey,  expressed  as  these  were  in  good  literary 
form. 

Being  thus  on  the  subject  of  the  Edinburgh  reviewers, 
I  asked  him  pointedly,  "  Mr.  Gladstone,  did  you  know 
Lord  Brougham  ? " 

"  Lord  Brougham !  "  said  he  with  much  animation, 
"  he  was  one  of  my  intimate  personal  friends." 

Then,  tapping  with  his  fingers  the  end  of  the  sofa 
on  which  he  was  seated,  and  speaking  to  me  standing 
by  his  side,  in  terms  of  what  I  may  describe  as  enthusiastic 
animation,  he  launched  forth  into  a  series  of  vivid  descrip- 
tions of  men  and  events. 

"  I  am  told,"  said  I,  "  that  Scarlet?  was  Brougham's 
most  formidable  antagonist,  and  a  man  of  the  greatest 
persuasive  powers." 


THE   ELOQUENT   IN   TALK  89 

"  Well,"  said  he,  "  if  you  refer  to  Parliament,  I  do 
not  agree  with  you.  I  will  tell  you  what  Scarlett's  power 
was  :  he  knew  the  mind  of  a  jury.  I  will  give  you  an 
instance.  My  father  was  a  keen  business  man,  and  he 
had  a  litigation  at  Westminster,  and  Scarlett  was  his 
counsel.  My  father's  antagonist  was  in  the  witness-box, 
and  was  being  cross-examined  by  Scarlett,  and  my  father 
— a  keen  business  man — desired  that  a  certain  question 
in  particular  should  be  put  to  his  opponent.  He  accord- 
ingly wrote  the  question  down  on  a  piece  of  paper  and 
handed  it  to  Scarlett,  who  perused  it,  and,  turning  down 
his  thumb  (you  know  how  these  things  are  done),  put  it 
on  one  side.  But  my  father  was  not  to  be  beaten,  and  he 
accordingly  again  wrote  his  question  upon  another  slip 
of  paper,  and  again  handed  it  to  Scarlett,  who  thereupon 
put  the  question  and  received  a  most  damaging  answer; 
upon  receiving  which  he  turned  round  and  said  to  my 
father,  '  Where  are  you  now,  Mr.  Gladstone  ?  ' 

"  No,"  he  said,  "  not  Scarlett,  but  in  Parliament  I 
should  rather  reckon  that  Sir  William  Follett  was  the 
greatest;  and  about  that  time  Parliament  was  never  so 
rich  in  great  lawyers.  Five  of  them,  all  great,  I  remember 
sitting  on  the  one  front  bench." 

"  We  think,"  said  I,  "  judging  from  our  very  limited 
experience  in  Scotch  appeals,  that  Lord  Chancellor  Cairns 
stands  at  the  head  of  the  list  of  these  Englishmen." 

"  Sir  Hugh  Cairns  !  "  he  said.  "  Yes,  I  have  heard 
great  lawyers  in  England  discuss  that  topic,  and  I  found 
the  general  opinion  to  be  that  among  them  Sir  Hugh 
Cairns  stands  first,  and  Jessel — Jessel  the  Jew — stands 
second." 

"  Of  course,"  said  I,  "  Westbury " 


go  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

"  Westbury !  "  cried  he.  "  I  consider  that  Lord 
Westbury  was  a  man  of  so  acute  and  penetrating  an 
intellect  that  it  mattered  not  to  him  one  rush  whether 
the  cause  which  he  espoused  was  right  or  wrong.  I  will 
give  you  an  instance.  You  are  not  old  enough  to  re- 
member the  first  China  War.  We  had  a  debate  of  five 
days  upon  the  subject  in  the  House  of  Commons,  with 
the  result  that  we  threw  Palmerston  out,  and  on  appeal 
to  the  country,  the  country  threw  us  out. 

"  Sir  Richard  Bethell  was  then  Attorney-General,  and 
he  and  the  Solicitor-General  of  the  day  were  called  in  to  a 
Cabinet  Council  to  advise  on  the  question  whether  the  war 
could  possibly  be  defended.  The  Solicitor-General — a 
plain,  simple  man — thought  that  it  was  possible  that  it 
might  be  defended;  but  Sir  Richard  Bethell  announced 
to  the  Cabinet  emphatically  his  opinion  that  by  no  human 
ingenuity  could  that  war  be  defended.  Well,  as  I  said, 
the  debate  came  on  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  on 
the  evening  of  the  third  day  the  adjournment  had  been 
moved.  I  was  sitting  on  the  front  bench,  while  the  Clerks 
were  arranging  their  papers  on  the  table,  and  the  Speakei 
in  my  hearing,  as  he  passed  from  the  Chair,  said  to  Sir 
Erskine  May,  the  Clerk  of  the  House,  '  What  a  remark- 
ably able  speech  was  that  just  delivered  by  Sir  Richard 
Bethell !  '  That  speech  was  in  defence  of  the  first  China 
War,  which,  in  the  private  consultations  of  the  Cabinet, 
he  had  advised  by  no  human  ingenuity  could  possibly  be 
defended !  " 

By  this  time  I,  standing  in  front  of  him,  had  been 
joined  by  others  of  the  company,  and,  in  short,  the  anima- 
tion of  his  utterances,  and  the  attractiveness  and  grace 
of  his  presence  and  gesture,  had  gathered  a  circle  about 


THE   ELOQUENT   IN   TALK  91 

him.  No  sign  of  lassitude  was  apparent,  although  by 
this  time  the  clock  was  on  the  stroke  of  eleven,  and  he 
had  had  a  day,  and  days,  of  stupendous  exertion.  But 
he  must  be  protected  against  even  our  delighted  impor- 
tunity :  Mrs.  Gladstone  quietly  slipped  in  amongst  us,  and 
her  husband  was  whisked  off  to  his  own  apartments,  and 
the  pleasant  company  dispersed. 

How  lifeless  and  bald  must  any  reproduction  in  black 
and  white  be  of  such  conversation  !  The  magic  and  music 
of  it,  its  charm  and  grace,  its  range  of  feeling  from  volcanic 
earnestness  to  the  tenderest  humour,  all  these,  alas,  no 
skill  can  reproduce,  no  words  describe.  That  is  all  that 
our  settled  recollection  can  declare;  at  the  immediate 
moment  our  minds  were  in  a  storm  of  excitement. 

As  I  left  the  hall,  I  was  seized  by  both  shoulders  by 
another  of  the  guests,  and  shaken  violently  to  the  refrain, 
"  Did  you  ever,  ever,  ever  in  your  life  hear  the  like  of 

that?" 

***** 

I  have  given  you  the  notes  just  as  they  are;  and  thus 
they  end.  What  think  you  of  it?  Does  it  interest  you? 
Does  it  move  you?  Anyhow,  it  is  a  true  picture,  drawn 

at  the  very  time,  by 

Your  loving 

FATHER. 


LETTER    XVI 

THE    SARCASM    CARVED    IN    STONE 

Craigmyle. 

September  i,  1920. 
MY  ISABEL, 

I  have  a  confession  to  make  to  you.  I  cannot  truth- 
fully deny  that  newspapers  did  influence  me,  and  some- 
times helped  to  shape  my  opinion,  in  these  early  days. 
You  know  very  well  how  differently  you  were  brought  up, 
and  how  journalistic  opinion  was  never  taken  among  you 
at  its  face  value.  Had  it  been  otherwise,  our  family  life 
would  have  been  a  poor  flustered  affair. 

My  complete  disconnexion  from  society  entanglements 
may  have  had  something  to  do  with  an  outspokenness 
which  gave  anxiety  to  friends  and  was  received  with — 
well,  disapproval,  by  the  other  sort.  But  when  day  after 
day,  week  after  week,  or  even  year  after  year,  the  same 
familiar  tags — contempt,  sophism,  attack,  and  those  lower 
forms  of  hostility  which  are  known  in  the  lower  quarters 
— when  these  were  at  their  oftenest  and  their  worst,  they 
provoked  only  a  shameless  hilarity  among  a  family  of 
jolly  unbelievers.  They  applied  even  to  that  our 
standing  family  maxim  :  '  Turn  every  trouble  into  an 
adventure." 

But,  as  I  say,  it  was  different  when  I  was  young.  To 
be  "  in  the  papers  "  either  for  good  or  for  bad  was  a 

serious   affair.     This   kind   of   feeling   lasted   till   I   was 

92 


THE  SARCASM  CARVED   IN   STONE     93 

grown  up.  It  was  so  for  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
Scotchmen.  It  is  so  no  longer.  A  kind  of  emancipation 
took  place  from  the  power  of  the  Press  and  a  great  emerg- 
ence of  the  right  of  private  judgment.  This  independ- 
ence of  journalistic  leading-strings  has  continued.  It  is 
greater  in  Scotland  than  even  in  the  North  of  England, 
greater  far  than  in  the  South.  And  I  should  put  Scot- 
land at  least  forty  years  in  advance  of  London  in  this 
regard;  for  London  is  the  lowest  in  the  scale  of  moral 
misfortune — that  of  being  content,  and  even  of  wishing, 
to  have  its  thinking  done  for  it. 

What  caused  the  change?  Well,  it  had  no  doubt  to 
do  with  the  Home  Rule  split.  But  most  of  all  it  was  in 
the  world  of  hero  worship  that  the  shock  occurred.  Here 
is  an  instance  at  hand. 

A  very  leading  paper  in  the  East  of  Scotland  was 
the  Scotsman.  It  had  been  conducted  for  a  long 
period  with  such  ability  as  to  have  become  a  real 
pioneer  not  only  of  political  liberalism,  but  of  religious 
toleration. 

We  were  most  of  us  younger  fellows  very  willing  to 
study  public  affairs  in  quarters  more  settled  and  scientific 
— especially  in  economics  and  history  as  well  as  scholar- 
ship— than  the  columns  of  a  daily  paper.  Still,  water 
wears  the  rock.  And  when  Mr.  Gladstone  came  to  Mid- 
lothian, his  disciples  numbered  thousands  who  had  been 
so  deluged  with  praise  of  him  that  hero  worship  faintly 
expresses  their  state  of  mind.  The  adulation  of  him  by 
the  Scotsman — "  adulation  "  is  quite  a  feeble  and  inade- 
quate term — the  adulation  of  him  in  those  columns  was 
so  steady,  so  lavish,  so  indiscriminate,  that  it  required  a 
real  cleverness  to  conceal  its  being  overdone.  Such  was 


94  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

the  state  and  such  was  the  influence  of  the  Press  in  that 
quarter  in  the  first  half  of  the  'eighties. 

In  the  second  half  of  the  'eighties  all  was  changed. 
The  hero  incarnate  had  become  something  else  incarnate. 
All  that  was  bright  had  turned  to  darkness,  and  the  same 
man  had  suddenly  been  transmuted  from  the  preacher  of 
righteousness  to  the  prophet  of  evil;  the  sincere  in  him 
had  become  sinister;  the  good  in  him  had  become  evil; 
there  had  been  nothing  like  it  since  the  fall  of  Adam, 
only,  owing  to  its  dangerous  accomplishments,  this  was 
worse  than  original  sin.  So  where  there  had  been  admira- 
tion of  the  man  there  was  now  contempt,  where  there  had 
been  streams  of  adulation  there  now  ran  rivers  of 
contumely. 

Was  this  consistent  or  inconsistent?  Was  it  right  or 
wrong?  That,  my  lady,  is  not  the  point  I  am  pressing. 
The  point  is  this  :  that  the  swift  and  tremendous  change 
from  the  one  extreme  to  the  other  put  it  into  the  heads 
of  many,  many  citizens  that  both  extremes  were  wrong, 
and  that  such  leading  was  only  for  the  blind.  I  am  not 
talking,  mark  you,  of  that  huge  body  of  Scotchmen  who 
resented  the  change  on  its  merits,  and  still  revered  Mr. 
Gladstone.  They  did  so  now  indeed  with  a  new  affection 
as  they  watched  how  finely  he  bore  adversity  of  opinion 
and  the  buffetings  of  fortune.  But  I  am  referring  to  that 
far  from  negligible  body  of  men  who  realized  afresh  a 
capacity  and  indeed  a  duty  to  do  without  Press  domina- 
tion, and  who  became  steeled  in  favour  of  independence 
of  mind.  That  class  has  grown,  grows,  and  will  grow. 
Even  London  may  come  along  :  the  dear  big  Babylon 
will  be  none  the  worse. 

As  to  my  own  case,  that  is  neither  here  nor  there. 


THE  SARCASM   CARVED   IN   STONE    95 

After  I  entered  public  life  I  became  the  object  of  the 
affable  attentions  of  the  paper  I  have  mentioned,  and  of 
its  satellite  which  revolved  in  the  same  orbit.  As  the 
years  went  on  the  iteration  grew  laughable,  and  being 
one-sided — for  I  never  took  any  notice — except  possibly 
on  an  early  opportunity  to  go  one  worse — it  became  tire- 
some, and  after  that  a  kind  of  testimonial;  for  if  I  had 
earned  approbation  in  that  quarter  it  would  have  lost  me 
votes. 

Then  was  I  not  in  good  company?  Think  of  Dr. 
Rainy,  the  ablest,  the  wisest,  and  the  most  truly  Christian 
man  of  affairs  whom  I  have  ever  intimately  known  out  of 
Parliament.  One's  own  case  did  not  matter ;  but  to  think 
of  such  treatment,  from  such  a  source,  of  such  a  man ! 
I  once  spoke  to  Dr.  Rainy  on  the  subject,  making  no 
secret  of  my  own  sense  of  what  was  going  on.  The 
learned  Principal  read  me  a  lesson  in  philosophy.  Half 
gravely,  half  humorously,  with  that  wonderful  play  of  eye- 
lids which  seemed  to  tremble  towards  the  distance,  he 
said  :  "  Well,  of  course,  it  is  a  pity  that  Mr.  Cooper  is  a 
man  who  is  so  largely  governed  by  hostilities  !  " 

Mr.  Cooper  was  the  editor  of  the  paper,  a  man  of 
talent,  clever  rather  than  wise,  a  Roman  Catholic  English- 
man, with  no  knowledge  of  the  essentials  of  Scottish 
history  or  character;  and  his  sympathies  and  antipathies 
were  worked  indefatigably  and  according  to  plan.  The 
admirable  apparatus  of  his  paper  enabled  him  to  gratify 
these  at  will,  and  no  doubt  this  temptation  led  him  at 
times  too  far. 

I  was  wrong  in  saying  that  I  took  no  notice.  I  once 
did.  There  was  a  case  being  tried  in  Edinburgh — an 
unjust  attempt  (as  I  remember  it)  to  extract  damages  from 


g6  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

a  builder  for  a  workman's  own  fault  or  mistake.  There 
were  lots  in  it  about  scaffoldings,  beams,  and  so  on.  I 
had  been  possibly  sent  for  from  London  to  defend  the 
case,  and  as  I  walked  up  the  North  Bridge  to  Court, 
something  interested  me. 

The  present  fine  buildings  there  had  just  been  erected 
— among  them  the  handsome  premises  of  my  journalistic 
supervisors.  The  jury  soon  got  on  the  wrong  tack  alto- 
gether, and  seemed  to  resent  the  defence  :  one  had  to  get 
them  back  to  good  sense  by  the  way  of  good  humour. 
So  in  addressing  them  I  made  a  detour. 

'  There  are  strange  freaks,  Gentlemen,"  said  I,  "  in 
Edinburgh  buildings.  If  any  of  you  go  down,  for 
instance,  to  the  North  Bridge,  you  will  have  a  treat."  By 
this  time  there  were  symptoms  that  the  jury,  and  Lord 
McLaren  too,  who  was  presiding  over  them,  were  expect- 
ing fun.  '  You  will  see  there,"  said  I,  "  an  architectural 
freak  :  a  sarcasm  carved  in  stone"  A  bit  of  a  pause. 
'  You  will  see  a  Figure,  holding  the  Torch  of  Truth — over 
the  Scotsman  office  !  " 

There  was  a  little  scuffle  and  racket,  of  course,  but  all 
went  well.  And  after  the  case  was  over  a  good  few  of  the 
auditors,  including  jurors  and  listening  juniors,  went  home 
via  the  North  Bridge  ! 

Dear  !     Dear  !     What  liberties  one  took  ! 

Your  very  own 

TRUE  LOVE. 


LETTER    XVII 
THE    HARRY   VANE    POINT 

Craigmyle. 

September  5,  1920. 
PLEASE,  ISABEL  DEAR, 

Here  is  a  Sabbath  morning,  peaceful,  serene,  lovely. 
I  have  been  wondering  in  my  own  mind  whether  perhaps 
I  have  not  been  failing  to  show  forth  truly  that  great 
decade  of  the  'eighties.  Or  rather  whether  I  have  not 
been  omitting,  for  you  as  well  as  for  myself,  its  deepest 
significance. 

I  mean  this.  It  is  true  that  professional  work  was 
arduous,  severe,  unremitting;  treadmill  work,  if  you  think 
of  it  merely  in  itself,  which  is  what  nobody  should  do 
who  has  the  healthy  mind.  It  is  true  that  the  affairs  of 
State  came  at  that  time  rushing  like  a  great  wind  info  very 
arid  places.  One's  thoughts  were  swept  out  of  the  narrow 
and  self-centred  round;  exhilarations  came  in  that  ample 
range,  but  with  them  came,  sometimes  conflict,  sometimes 
dust. 

Yet  that  is  not  the  whole  truth.  We  must  be  fair  and 
candid  with  each  other;  there  was  that  something  else  of 
which  I  wrote  to  you  some  time  ago. 

I  understand  that  there  is  a  mighty  difference,  as 
scientific  men  point  out,  between  the  effect  of  irregular 
waves  and  regular  waves  in  the  world  of  sound.  The  one 

is  noise,  the  other  is  music.     It  is  so  in  life.     Effort, 
H  97 


98  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

struggle,  exhilaration  :  what  shall  abate  the  noise — what 
shall  lay  the  dust — what  shall  bring  the  pulsations,  now 
wild  and  now  lethargic,  into  rhythm?  Will  insouciance 
do  it,  or  abandon?  Will  health  do  it  or  will  stoicism? 
No !  no !  none  of  these.  "  There  is  a  world  elsewhere." 
That  is  the  secret.  It  is  the  consciousness  of  that  that 
gives  hope  its  scope  and  faith  its  power.  As  I  was  brought 
up  to  believe,  it  was  in  that  consciousness  that  the  parallels 
of  principle  were  laid.  That  it  is  which  is  the  great} 
regularizer.  And  so  the  movements  alike  of  the  inner  and 
the  outward  world  are  transmuted  from  noise  to  a  music 
of  life. 

You  know  very  well  about  these  things ;  and  I  am  only 
putting  them  down  to  show  you  that  I  am  not  forgetting 
them,  that  after  having  reached  the  allotted  span  I  still 
most  verily  believe  in  them,  and  that  indeed  to  leave  them 
out  of  the  account  would  not  be  honest.  Nay,  I  feel  that 
they  are  more  widely,  far  more  widely,  making  to  great 
masses  of  men  a  true  motive  power  of  life  than  is  com- 
monly supposed.  Nowadays,  of  course,  it  is  an  affecta- 
tion of  the  hour  to  play  Gallic,  to  deny  with  a  wink  or  a 
smile  all  place  for  things  divine  in  the  springs  of  human 
action,  and  to  exhibit  a  sham  and  shabby  shrewdness  by 
asking  at  every  turn  of  a  man's  life  what  game  he  is  up 
to.  This,  of  course,  is  a  belittling  of  life  to  the  critic's 
measure,  and — but  you — well,  to  business. 

The  upshot  of  it  all  is  that  in  the  'eighties  the  things 
whose  interest  attracted  me  outside  of  the  law  were  not 
only  the  affairs  of  the  State,  but  also,  and  quite  naturally, 
and  as  a  matter  of  course,  the  affairs  of  the  Church,  in 
that  sense,  wide  and  tolerant  and  true,  for  which  the 
term  should  stand. 


THE   HARRY   VANE   POINT  99 

The  position  of  Scotland  as  to  this  was  distinct.  No 
doubt  in  forty  years  that  position  may  have  shifted.  As 
what  has  not  ?  May  not  one  cherish  catholicity,  toleration, 
the  love  for  and  belief  in  more  light — light  from  all  the 
width  of  heaven? 

"  What  custom  wills,  in  all  things  should  we  do't, 
The  dust  on  antique  time  would  be  unswept, 
And  mountainous  error  be  too  highly  heaped 
For  truth  to  overpeer." 

More  than  any  others  that  fine  body  of  men  I  worked  with 
felt  these  truths,  while  cherishing  with  a  deep  loyalty  "  the 
fundamentals." 

But  do  not  forget  that  the  Scotland  of  those  times — 
to  the  circle  of  which  I  speak — stood  thus;  and  if  you 
don't  want  this  disquisition,  then  don't  read  it,  but  be 
pleased  to  let  me  ease  my  conscience  in  describing  that 
part  of  the  life  of  myself  and  thousands  of  us  in  that  day 
by  just  writing  it  down  : — 

Scotland  was  the  home  of  Presbyterianism,  that  is  to 
say,  it  was  democratic,  from  the  keel  to  the  masthead. 
The  organizing  genius  of  Calvin  and  the  masterful  in- 
tellect of  Knox  had  made  the  whole  body  of  the  people 
inheritors  in  a  personal  sense,  not  only  of  the  principle 
of  equality  of  rights,  but  of  those  imperative  duties 
which  that  equality  implied.  So  the  clergy  were  kept, 
so  to  speak,  in  their  proper  place.  They  were  teach- 
ing elders,  and  no  more.  The  doctrine  of  apostolic 
succession  was  neither  believed  in  historically  nor  was  it 
felt  to  be  consistent  with  Presbyterian  equality,  putting  as 
it  did  fellow-men  in  a  position  of  ascendancy  and  privi- 
lege; whereas  such  ascendancy  and  privilege  should  and 
could  alone  be  won  or  kept  in  any  Christian  community 


ioo  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

by  character  and  faith  and  moral  worth.  So  men,  with 
the  kind  of  upbringing  I  had,  naturally  felt  that  as  man- 
hood came  to  them  its  responsibility  of  witness-bearing  led 
them  into  Church  life  and  work.  There  was  no  ecclesias- 
ticism  about  it. 

Therefore  one  worked  away  as  an  office-bearer,  visiting, 
teaching  in  the  schools,  and  all  the  rest  of  it,  in  that  little 
Presbyterian  world  into  which  you,  like  the  other  dear  ones, 
were  baptized.  This  led  one  in  time  into  the  so-called 
Church  Courts,  the  chief  of  these  being  that  lively,  inde- 
pendent, capable,  fearless,  and  altogether  lovable  body 
called  the  Synod. 

It  numbered  from  1,000  to  1,200  men;  clergy  and  laity 
equally  represented,  every  congregation  all  over  Scotland 
sending  its  minister  and  an  elder.  If  ever  incongruity 
had  a  chance,  surely  you  might  say  it  was  there;  they 
came  from  a  country  as  divided  in  sentiment  as  it  was 
by  straits  and  seas.  But  this  is  a  singularity  of  Scotland 
itself — that  that  variety  of  geographical  distribution  has 
been  accompanied  by  a  surprising  solidarity  of  belief. 

It  has  been  often  noted  in  things  political.  It  arose 
from  things  religious.  Men  were  welded  together  by  a 
common  faith,  and  if  the  State  and  politics  tried  to  con- 
cuss that,  there  were  in  old  days  rebellions  and  scaffolds 
and  cruelties  and  killing  times,  and  in  these  often  and 
often  again  Dissent  stood  side  by  side  with  Duty.  Dis- 
sent had  gone  through  various  stages  and  evolutions ;  and 
though  a  gentler  and  more  insidious  code  of  conformity 
made  easy  became,  of  course,  the  vogue,  the  Synod  may 
be  said  to  have  represented  the  consolidated  forces  of  all 
Presbyterianism  outside,  deliberately  and  of  set  principle 
outside,  connexion  with  the  secular  power. 


THE  HARRY  VANE  POINT  101 

This  connexion  was  in  full  force  with  the  Established 
Church ;  the  same  connexion  was  historically  visible  in  the 
Free  Church,  which  remained  in  a  perplexity  between  the 
dead  past  and  the  living  present — a  perplexity  for  which 
it  suffered  a  most  cruel  punishment.  Our  own  good 
Church  was  neither  in  the  Establishment  nor  did  it  make 
the  slightest  claim  or  wish  or  pretence  of  right  to  be  in  it. 
Its  view  was  simply  that  State  Endowments  were  a 
deadening  and  deplorable  affair,  and  that  State  control 
was  insufferable  to  an  institution  which  ought  to  be  moved 
alone  by  the  living  Spirit.  That  was  it :  guidance  and 
direction  were  there. 

Evangelical  ?  Yes ;  come  along,  good  old  word  !  "  I 
am  not  ashamed  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ,"  said  St.  Paul, 
and  so  said  they.  That  was  their  Apostolical  succession. 

There  were  two  great  nights  of  their  annual  session — 
one  on  the  relations  of  Church  and  State,  and  in  this  they 
justified  and  fortified  their  position,  making  clear  the  in- 
evitable logic  of  toleration.  The  other  was  on  the  spread 
of  the  Evangel  in  accordance  with  the  command.  Thirty 
or  forty  years  ago  that  was  a  brace  of  topics  which  drew 
great,  intensely  interested,  deeply  earnest  audiences. 

Had  I  thought  that  either  cause  would  suffer  by  the 
transaction  of  union  with  the  Free  Church  I  should  never 
have  put  my  hand  to  that  great  work  which  was  accom- 
plished as  the  century  drew  to  its  close.  Have  these 
causes  suffered  ?  Well !  who  knows  ?  The  great  Chris- 
tian promises,  commands,  duties,  stand  as  before,  leading, 
as  I  believe,  to  the  same  great  conclusions.  All  is  in  the 
best  of  Hands. 

More  than  any  other  assembly  I  have  ever  known,  the 
Synod  resembled  in  the  quality  of  its  debates  the  Parlia- 


102  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

ment  at  Westminster.  Yet  the  former  had  some  advan- 
tages. It  had  no  leaders,  no  parties,  no  coalitions.  Every 
subject  was  tested  by  good  sense,  sound  knowledge,  and 
gospel  truth.  No  other  leadership  did  they  want.  One 
would  have  thought  that  disintegration  would  have  ensued. 
Not  a  whit.  As  there  were  no  parties,  there  was  nothing 
to  fall  asunder. 

So  aspirants  to  leadership  were  few.  One  or  two 
Doctors  of  Divinity  I  knew,  whose  ambitions  in  that 
direction  were  quickly  dowsed.  Yet  the  real  head-and- 
shoulders  men  could  not,  of  course,  be  concealed.  Two 
of  them  I  vividly  recall.  They  were  singularly  unlike  in 
personal  appearance.  The  one  tall,  loosely  built,  yet 
massive — a  great  body,  surmounted  by  a  noble,  truly  noble, 
snowy  head.  The  other  was  small,  compactly  built;  long 
upper  lip ;  face  closely  shaven ;  head  closely  cropped ;  in 
no  way — as  the  Scotch  say — "  kenspeckle."  The  one 
ample,  rich  and  flowing,  Ciceronian  in  style;  the  other 
logical,  compendious,  pungent,  Tacitian.  Yet  both  of 
them  living  embodiments  of  power,  of  a  true  modesty,  of 
a  courage  undaunted,  and  within — a  heart  of  golden 
chanty.  Having  known  them,  I  say  this,  not  of  one  but 
of  both. 

No  mean  men  these,  as  teachers,  as  debaters.  Both 
were  Principals  in  their  time.  Cairns  had  long  years 
before  his  death  been  offered  the  Principalship  of  the 
University  of  Edinburgh;  but  till  after  his  death  it  was 
never  known. 

I  was  meaning  to  tell  you  of  those  influences  and 
associations  which  in  the  affairs  of  Church  and  State 
moved  me  ere  I  was  called  to  the  parliamentary  arena. 
And  I  have  begun  with  the  former.  Later  and  larger 


THE   HARRY  VANE   POINT  103 

events   in   the   ecclesiastical   sphere — they   can   wait   till 
another  occasion. 

Now  for  the  affairs  of  State.  For  I  suppose  you  do 
want  to  hear  about  the  approach  to  Westminster? 

But  it  is  late.  Not  to-night.  Forgive  the  ardour  of 
some  of  these  old  remembrances.  But  I  am  trying  to  tell 
you  things  as  I  felt  them. 

Your  Sabbath-breaking 

FATHER. 


LETTER    XVIII 

A   SPORTING   AFFAIR 

Craigmyle. 

September  7,  1920. 
DEAR  LASS  ISABEL, 

The  'eighties  are  over.  Their  experiences — hard  in 
the  law,  serious  in  the  Church,  inspiring  in  the  State; 
with  literature  a  steady  consolation,  and  family  life  a 
support  and  a  delight — were  these  not  richer  far,  for  the 
purposes  of  life,  than  accumulations  of  wealth  ? 

The  inevitable  consequence  ensued.  Just  as  in  youth 
the  prescribed  bounds  had  been  broken,  so  it  was  in  man- 
hood. Much  had  to  be  risked  again,  but  this  time  the 
risks  were  broader  and  more  serious.  Work-a-day  busi- 
ness to  be  torn  to  fragments;  Edinburgh  forsaken  for 
Westminster,  during  most  of  the  working  year.  Was  one 
justified  in  applying  even  to  that  the  jolly  family  maxim 
— turn  every  trouble  into  an  adventure? 

I  own  to  you  that  these  thoughts  did  sizzle  in  the  mind. 
The  sweet  counsellor  by  my  side  never  flinched.  In  1890 
I  accepted  the  invitation  to  become  Liberal,  or  rather 
Radical  candidate  for  the  Border  Burghs. 

It  was  difficult  country,  and  the  pace  was  fast.  Had 
anything  broken,  had  even  the  saddle-girths  been  slack- 
ened by  a  single  hole,  I  should  have  been  unhorsed.  But 
it  was  the  Scott  country.  The  men  were  born  fighters; 
loyalty  was  not  a  passive  but  an  active  quality,  and  on 

104 


A  SPORTING  AFFAIR  105 

each  side  of  politics  loyalty  was  true  as  steel.  A  sure 
seat?  No!  No!  Just  the  very  opposite.  A  sporting 
affair.  Of  adventure  there  was  such  a  spice  as  would  have 
tempted  the  most  austere  to  a  bout  of  betting. 

On  the  one  side  there  was  the  Liberal  tradition.  Sir 
George  Trevelyan  had  been  member  for  eighteen  years, 
rendering  conspicuous  political  service  by  his  faithful  advo- 
cacy of  the  extension  of  the  franchise,  and  making  by  his 
literary  achievements  even  his  parliamentary  pedestal 
famous.  His  majorities  had  run  into  thousands.  Who 
was  I  to  think  of  succeeding  such  a  man,  or  of  ever  in 
the  world  being  not  only  his  parliamentary  but  his 
ministerial  colleague  ? 

Yet  I  was  to  know  the  warmth  of  his  friendship  and 
the  steady  kindness  of  his  encouragement.  Rummaging 
among  papers  the  other  day  I  found  this  letter.  Read  it. 
Can  you  wonder  that  I  love  and  venerate  its  author? 

"  Welcombe, 

"  Stratford-on-Avon. 

"February  11,   1897. 
"DEAR  SHAW, 

"I  have  been  following  your  energetic  peregrinations.  The 
fact  is  that  it  is  an  extraordinary  thing  to  see  anyone  who 
really  enjoys  politics,  and  yet  understands  their  higher  aspect 
and  holds  his  opinions  as  a  creed.  It  has  been  a  great  element 
in  my  life  for  some  years  past  to  get  some  electricity  from  a 
contact  which  fortunately  was  a  pretty  frequent  one.  I  look 
back  to  our  relations  with  unmixed  satisfaction,  and  forward 
to  enjoying  the  friendship  which  has  resulted  from  them. 
***** 

"With  our  united  kind  remembrances  to  Mrs.  Shaw, 

"I   remain, 

"Very  sincerely  yours, 

"G.  TREVELYAN." 


io6  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

Following  Trevelyan  came  Alexander  Laing  Brown, 
who  sat  from  1885  till  1892.  You  know  well  enough 
about  him,  so  far  as  his  conversational  gifts  and  his 
extraordinary  powers  of  memory  are  concerned.  But 
of  his  public  efforts  you  know  nothing.  Well;  he 
was  quite  the  most  powerful  helper  of  Mr.  Glad- 
stone in  all  Scotland — worth  a  dozen  of  platform  sup- 
porters and  hundreds  of  the  hanger-on  species.  He 
was  shortish  of  stature  and  spare  of  build.  He  had  a 
fine  and  lofty  forehead,  a  gleaming  eye,  a  good  modu- 
lation of  voice;  and  he  also  had,  when  he  passed  out 
of  his  humorous  exordium,  that  true  orator's  strength — a 
word  of  power  from  a  heart  of  flame.  This  will  seem  to 
you  exaggeration;  but  it  is  not.  I  have  seen  him  over 
and  over  again  dip  into  the  literary  treasures  that  were 
always  to  his  hand,  and — for  he  was  an  ardent  Brown- 
ingite — clinch  both  argument  and  appeal  by  vivid  lines 
from  his  favourite  author.  This  man  was  resigning,  and 
so  the  vacancy.  I  always  loved  him;  he  was  my  friend, 
eloquent,  assiduous,  unfailing,  from  my  first  contact  with 
the  Burghs  till  the  last. 

I  remember  well  one  occasion  on  which  the  three  of 
us — Trevelyan,  Brown  and  I — strode,  back  and  forward, 
from  end  to  end  of  the  Terrace  of  the  Houses  of  Parlia- 
ment, deep  in  an  animated  talk.  Our  good  friends  of 
the  other  persuasion — not  a  few  of  them — watched  us 
kindly  but  with  a  grim  smile.  I  interpreted  their  ques- 
tion to  be  : — "  What  new  manoeuvre  are  these  rebels  of 
Radicals  discussing  ?  "  Why,  my  dear,  they  were  discuss- 
ing the  literature  and  ballads  of  the  Borders,  Brown's 
knowledge  and  memory  of  these  far  excelling  all  of  ours. 
But  I  must  get  back  to  my  story. 


A  SPORTING  AFFAIR  107 

These  were  the  pros.     Now  for  the  contras. 

Alas !  Trevelyan  had  forsaken  Mr.  Gladstone  and 
followed  Mr.  Chamberlain.  And  so  in  the  contest  of  1885 
his  thousands  had  melted  away.  Brown,  called  upon  at  a 
moment's  notice  to  save  Gladstonian  Liberalism  and  to 
defend  Home  Rule  for  Ireland,  had  stepped  into  the 
breach,  ousted  him  from  the  citadel,  destroyed  his 
majority,  and  kept  the  pass  by  the  narrow  figure  of 
thirty  votes. 

It  was  no  doubt  true  that,  after  the  failure  of  a  certain 
Round  Table  Conference,  Trevelyan  had  come  back  to 
the  old  party  fold.  But  did  he  bring  back  any  Border 
Unionists  with  him  ?  Not  one.  They  were  obstinate ; 
some  of  them  furious;  and  all  of  them  chafed  at  the  lead 
of  the  Burghs  being  held  against  them  for  seven  years 
by  thirty  votes.  They  held  a  common  talk  that  the  Burghs 
were  since  at  least  1888  misrepresented,  and  that  the 
Chamberlain  policy  was  now  in  the  ascendant. 

They  had  the  singular  good  fortune  of  having  as  their 
prospective  candidate  Mr.  Chamberlain's  own  son.  Here 
would  have  been  a  shrewd  blow — Austen  to  restore 
Chamberlainism  in  the  constituency  of  Trevelyan  who 
had  deserted  it !  Enough  to  make  every  Unionist  long 
for  the  day  of  battle.  I  should  tell  you  also  that  Mr. 
Austen  Chamberlain  on  his  own  merits  was  even  then  a 
singularly  attractive  personality,  and  displayed  the  be- 
ginnings of  those  high  qualities  which  have  since  made 
him  so  capable  and  effective  in  various  Ministries  of 
State.  No  one  could  fail  to  wish  such  a  man  well. 

Unfortunately  at  the  last  moment  he  chose  a  surer 
seat  in  Worcestershire.  There  he  won  handsomely.  The 
Burghs  selected  a  worthy  ex-Provost,  a  manufacturer  of 


io8  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

woollens,  who  sturdily  fought  for  local  interests  and  the 
Unionist  party  ticket. 

Yet  the  contest  was  strenuous — what  they  call  "  stir- 
ring." Great  audiences,  speeches  every  evening;  heck- 
ling galore.  Yes,  indeed,  heckling,  that  great  "  popular 
educator  "  north  of  the  Tweed.  Not  infrequently  I  spoke 
for  an  hour  and  was  heckled  for  an  hour  and  a  quarter. 
On  the  part  of  the  constituency,  extraordinary  knowledge, 
great  quickness  of  apprehension,  quickness  of  tongue,  love 
of  a  tussle,  and  loyalty  to  the  game. 

On  the  part  of  the  candidate,  whom  you  know,  what 
was  his  style  and  line?  Madame,  the  question  is  im- 
proper !  Are  they  not  recorded  in  the  Chronicles  of  etc., 
etc.,  etc.  ?  When  you  stand  for  Parliament,  dig  into  those 
speeches  for  curiosity's  sake.  Mines  of  wisdom  ! 

One  story  I  may  tell  you  which  I  fear  we  owe  to  the 
invention  of  some  kindly  rascals  of  the  Parliament  House. 
You  have  heard  in  my  last  letter  about  my  interest  in 
affairs  ecclesiastical.  In  former  epistles  also  those  ele- 
ments have  appeared  which  moved  me  in  warm  support 
of  the  popular  Radical  creed.  And  even  in  the  cradle 
you  must  have  heard  the  reverberations  of  the  Tweed 
controversy.  All  this  was  compended  by  the  clever  diarist 
aforesaid  as  follows  : 

"  I  like  Maister  Shaw,"  said  a  Galashiels  voter,  speak- 
ing to  a  friend  in  the  Peebles  train.  "  I  like  Maister 
Shaw.  You  see,  sir,  he's 

For  God; 

And  the  People ; 

And  Free  Fishing !  " 

I  was  often  chaffed  about  this  programme;  and  once  I 


A  SPORTING   AFFAIR  109 

allowed  that  the  best  of  all  free  fishing  was  "  free  fishing 
in  preserved  waters."  This  last  quip  never  came  out. 
The  programme  stood.  It  won.  The  majority  rose  from 
30  to  365. 

And  so  behold  in  the  dusk  of  an  evening  of  July,  1892, 
at  the  door  of  Abercromby  Place,  a  cab  heaped  up  with 
luggage.  Within  the  dwelling  a  grave-faced  father  in 
the  nursery  upstairs  kissing  the  children  one  by  one;  and 
then,  after  a  parting  serious  glance  at  the  bare  library 
desk,  from  which  all  the  briefs  had  been  sent  back,  he 
enters  the  cab  with  the  dear  companion  and  boards  the 
train  to  King's  Cross  en  route  for  Westminster.  That 
familiar  route  !  How  often  was  he  to  traverse  it,  by  day 
and  by  night,  during  the  next  seventeen  years  ! 

Your  affectionate 

FATHER. 


LETTER  XIX 

A  FRONT- BENCH  MAN  WITH  A  BACK -BENCH  MIND 

Craigtnyle. 

September  10,  1920. 
MY  OWN  ISABEL, 

The  weather  has  been  broken  and  the  shooting  infre- 
quent; so  what  to  do  in  these  days  but  to  keep  on 
answering  your  commands  ?, 

You  remember  how  Barrie  quaintly  describes  a  dis- 
cussion among  his  villagers,  as  to  what  could  be  the  use 
of  a  bit  of  ground  for  a  front  garden?  The  conclusive 
defence  for  it  was,  I  think,  that  it  was  a  place  where  "  a 
body  could  gae  back  and  fore,  composing  his  mind  "  ! 
As  I  paced  to  and  fro  on  the  terrace  this  morning,  the 
recollection  of  the  saying  caused  a  ripple  of  laughter  in 
the  mind.  Ah !  what  a  genius  that  of  Barrie's,  that  gift 
of  bequeathing  a  pleasure  to  the  memory,  of  causing  a 
laughter  in  the  mind  ! 

Where  was  I  ?  What  I  meant  to  be  at  was  this,  that 
looking  westward  and  seeing  the  clouds  drifting  from 
Lochnagar  to  Cloch-na-ben,  I  was  thinking  of  you,  and 
of  the  past,  and  was  "  composing  my  mind."  So  here 
goes  for  another  letter. 

The  Home  Rule  Parliament  of  1892  to  1895  was  pretty 
largely  a  new  Parliament.  What  was  my  predominant 
feeling?  Well,  to  tell  the  plain  truth,  it  was  one  of  be- 
wilderment. This  was  shared  by,  I  should  say,  two 


no 


FRONT-BENCH  MAN— BACK-BENCH   MIND    in 

hundred  of  us;  but  in  my  case  the  bewilderment  lasted 
for  at  least  a  year.  During  that  year  there  I  sat,  interested, 
watchful,  gradually  absorbing  the  spirit  of  the  procedure, 
not  in  the  least  bored,  scrupulously  silent. 

The  time  was  well  rilled  up.  There  was  the  daily 
letter  home.  Also  a  little  cargo  of  letters  to  constituents, 
helping  this  one  here  and  that  one  there,  and  learning  a 
great  patience  in  the  removing  of  doubts  and  the  soothing 
of  disquiet.  Now  and  again  cases  for  legal  opinion 
dropped  from  the  skies. 

I  made  the  orthodox  maiden  speech,  of  course,  and  in 
the  orthodox  manner.  That  is  to  say,  it  was  a  dismal 
failure.  I  know  about  these  things;  years  afterwards  I 
repeated  the  experiment  in  the  Lords;  dismal  failure 
again  !  Only  one  spark  of  consolation  in  the  Commons — 
Mr.  Gladstone,  probably  remembering  our  conversation 
at  the  Dean's,  stayed  in  the  nearly  empty  House  and 
into  his  dinner-hour  to  hear  me,  and,  as  he  left  the 
chamber,  gravely  bowed  his  acknowledgments.  It  was 
little,  but  the  courtesy  consoled. 

Then  one  day,  in  an  excited  and  a  crowded  House, 
with  a  division  impending  on  the  Home  Rule  Bill,  in 
which  every  vote  counted  and  which  might  mean  the  fall 
of  the  Government,  I  felt  irresistibly  called  to  interpose. 
The  question  at  issue  was  very  technical — about  keeping 
up  the  procedure  of  a  Petition  of  Right  before  you  could 
sue  the  Crown.  I  think  it  was  Carson — a  man  even  then 
of  marked  acuteness  and  vigour — who  raised  the  puzzle; 
and  he  and  Mr.  Balfour  made  the  pace  in  style.  To  them 
replied  Rigby — worth  any  ten  of  us,  but  oh  !  so  ponderous 
— and  he  and  Mr.  Gladstone  between  them  seemed  to  have 
ransacked  the  world  for  precedents. 


ii2  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

It  so  happened  that  in  some  law  case  or  other  I  had 
had  to  investigate  the  topic.  I  said  to  Sir  Joseph  Leese 
sitting  next  me  : 

"  Leese,  I  know  about  this;  should  I  say  anything?  " 

Leese  was  in  excitement  like  all  the  rest. 

"  What  ?  "  said  he.  "  Look  at  the  House ;  crammed 
up.  How  dare  you  think  of  it?  " 

Before  he  had  finished  I  was  on  my  feet.  A  kind  of 
curiosity  stilled  the  tumult  for  a  moment.  Mellor,  the 
Chairman,  didn't  even  know  my  name,  so  he  just  pointed 
to  me  with  his  finger.  My  theme  was  very  simple. 
People  had  been  wandering  all  over  the  world  for  pre- 
cedents ;  would  the  House  like  to  hear  of  one  nearer  home  ? 
If  it  would  suffer  two  sentences  I  would  tell  them  how  we 
managed  north  of  the  Tweed.  Mr.  Gladstone  swung 
round  for  a  moment  at  this,  looked  at  me,  and  thereafter 
boomed  out  his  "  Hear,  hears  "  as  I  proceeded.  The 
House  and  Government  were  making  much  ado  about 
nothing.  In  Scotland  we  did  without  Petition  of  Right 
altogether.  Any  Government  department  making  a  con- 
tract had  to  answer  that  contract  and  could  be  so  com- 
pelled in  the  Courts.  If  this  cumbrous  and  archaic  pro- 
cedure were  forced  on  Ireland,  I  should  advise  my  Irish 
friend  to  get  rid  of  it  at  the  quickest. 

The  House  of  Commons  does  really  like  to  have  a 
new  point,  or  a  new  fact,  stated  briefly  and  by  one  who 
knows.  And  it  listened  to  me  as  if  it  was  getting  that, 
just  when  it  most  wanted  it,  that  is  to  say.  in  the  dreari- 
ness of  Committee.  So  there  was  far  more  made  of  the 
thing  than  it  deserved. 

I  am  only  telling  you  this  for  a  reason  which  is  coming 
in  a  little.  Next  day  Sir  Charles  Russell,  the  Attorney- 


FRONT-BENCH  MAN— BACK-BENCH  MIND  113 

General,  came  to  me  with  a  message  from  Mr.  Gladstone. 
Alas  !  Sir  Charles  Russell  soon  wended  his  way  to  the 
Bench  as  Lord  Chief  Justice.  And  alas  !  Mr.  Gladstone's 
place  was  soon  empty  and  we  saw  the  grand  figure  no 
more. 

Readjustments  for  the  great,  too  great  void,  had 
to  take  place.  Lord  Rosebery  reigned  in  his  stead 
as  Prime  Minister;  Sir  William  Harcourt  leading  the 
Commons. 

Too  little  has  been  made  of  that  Harcourt  leading. 
It  was  in  circumstances  as  difficult,  as  we  afterwards  knew, 
as  ever  fell  to  the  lot  of  any  party  representative;  but  it 
was  quite  conspicuous  in  force  and  argumentative  power, 
quite  unwearied,  quite  fearless.  I  speak  of  him  perhaps 
as  a  partisan.  Many  times  he  called  me  to  his  side  on  the 
front  bench  and  we  exchanged  stories,  he  asking  for  the 
latest  in  Scotch.  One  time — but  there  you  are;  I  am 
cutting  before  the  point.  What  right  had  I  on  the  front 
bench  ? 

Why !  that  is  just  it.  That  accidental  little  speech 
had  put  a  point  of  Scotch  law  right  into  the  heart  of  an 
imperial  debate.  By  this  time  also — for  I  so  loved  the 
place  and  all  about  it — my  friends  were  numerous  in  all 
parts  of  the  House.  In  the  smoking-room,  chess,  with 
even  wild  opponents  like  Sir  Ellis  Ashmead  Bartlett;  and 
draughts — a  very  serious  affair — with  Fenwick,  the  miners' 
high-principled,  burly  Labour  leader;  and  with  McGhie 
(I  hope  the  good  McGhie  is  still  to  the  fore),  a  Home  Rule 
Irishman,  the  best  draught  player  I  ever  saw,  and  with  a 
head  so  stocked  with  Scotch  literature  and  with  Burns  as 
to  make  me  ashamed. 

As  for  the  Scotch  members,  they  were,  as  usual,  steady 


H4  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

going,  but  a  little  slow  in  the  pace;  and  with  them  there 
used  to  be  much  joviality.  About  six-and-twenty  of  us 
lived  in  Queen  Anne's  Mansions — that  vast  ten-  or  twelve- 
storey  disfigurement  which  overhangs  St.  James's  Park 
and  the  Wellington  Barracks.  To  get  there  from  West- 
minster we  had  to  pass,  not"  the  palatial  Broadway  as  it 
now  is  with  its  Central  Buildings,  but  the  Aquarium  and 
a  rather  slummy  quarter.  One  night — the  House  then  sat 
regularly  till  twelve — we  were  companioning  each  other 
to  the  Mansions.  As  usual  with  me  through  early  life, 
my  intimates  were  nearly  all  my  seniors.  One  of  these, 
as  we  passed  up  the  dark  quadrangle  of  those  gloomy 
towering  Mansions,  used  to  say  sepulchrally,  "  Surely, 
surely,  God  never  made  man  to  live  in  a  dwallin'  like 
this  !  "  But  the  barrack  has  stood,  and  it  thrives. 

So  the  little  stone  which  had  been  thrown  from 
Scotch  law  into  the  great  waters  of  debate  was  from 
the  hand  of  one  who  had  hosts  of  friends,  and  the 
act  was  known  to  have  had  approval  from  the  highest 
quarters. 

I  wonder  whether  these  things  had  their  effect  in  a 
certain  emergency  which  was  about  to  occur,  whether  they 
helped  or  hindered,  when  a  certain  totally  unexpected 
vacancy  occurred.  I  wonder. 

You  shall  hear  of  that  in  a  minute,  but  meantime  be 
good  and  listen  to  this. 

These  early  days  of  sympathetic  intercourse  with  the 
back  benches,  and  that  kind  of  understanding  comrade- 
ship, had  this  effect.  I  got  a  new  and  quite  certain 
experience  of  that  part  of  Parliament  which  is  its  least 
showy,  most  serviceable,  most  modest,  most  genuine  part. 
The  cheap  sneer  at  politics,  at  Parliament,  at  public  spirit 


FRONT-BENCH  MAN— BACK-BENCH  MIND    115 

itself,  that  you  may  hear  wherever  selfishness  is  the  prac- 
tice of  men  !  But  that  got  its  answer  then  and  there  with 
me  for  life.  The  front  benches — newspapers  and  party 
adulations  and  history  will  attend  to  them.  But  of  the 
back  benches  here  is  my  testimony. 

I  saw  around  me  men,  literally  in  crowds,  men  mostly 
in  middle  life  or  over,  men  with  no  axe  to  grind,  no  hope, 
no  expectation,  no  wish,  except  that  they  might  be  privi- 
leged to  repay  in  service  for  others  the  fortune  which  had 
smiled  upon  their  private  affairs.  This  breed  of  men  is 
the  strength  of  these  islands.  May  it  last  for  ever, 
distinguishing  our  country  from  all  less  happier  lands. 
Do  not  let  cynicism  cheat  you  of  the  belief  in  this  sound, 
modest,  wholesome  strength ;  it  is  true  :  I  loved  the  back 
benches  for  it.  And  so  in  after  years  my  friends  came 
nearer  the  point  than  they  dreamed,  of  what  I  really 
wanted  to  be.  They  dubbed  me  a  front-bench  man  with 
a  back-bench  mind. 

Do  not  let  me  lead  you  to  think  that  there  were  not 
grave  and  perplexing  anxieties.  That  would  be  make- 
believe.  The  fact  is  that  public  affairs  were  in  a  state  of 
high  tension;  the  Liberal  majority  was  barely  workable; 
so  slender  was  it,  that  even  a  few  days'  absence  from 
London  was  hardly  to  be  had.  Add  to  this  that  less  and 
less  grew  the  chances  of  that  long  winter  recess,  in  which 
had  lain  my  expectation  of  earning  my  living  in  the 
practice  of  my  profession. 

Yet  somehow  the  clouds  seemed  to  have  always  the 
silver  lining.  Life,  which  was  now  on  a  broader  and  a 
better  scale  for  me,  could  not  surely  be  put  on  a  narrower 
or  a  worse  for  those  dearer  than  life.  A  little  fanciful, 
perhaps ;  but  it  was  a  faith. 


n6  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

Then  suddenly,  as  in  a  thunderclap,  the  back-bench 
period  came  to  an  end.  Without  a  note  or  hint  of 
warning,  Mr.  Asher,  one  of  the  greatest  advocates  in  the 
United  Kingdom,  resigned  the  post  he  held,  and  I  was 
appointed  Solicitor-General  for  Scotland. 

Your  quite  exhausted 

FATHER. 


LETTER    XX 

THISTLE    AND    SHAMROCK 

Craigmyle. 

September  17,  1920. 
DEAR  RESPECTED, 

Yesterday  I  was  planted  in  a  high  butt  in  the  Forest 
of  Birse.  I  was  doing  all  the  things  no  decent  shot  should 
do.  I  was  gazing  on  range  after  range  of  mountains 
beautiful  beyond  description,  purple  near  at  hand,  blue 
in  the  far  distanced  outline,  while  overhead  was  the  saffron 
sky  streaked  with  bars  of  crimson  and  of  grey.  I  sang 
out  the  words  from  Marmion  which  you  know.  '  To  fight 
for  such  a  land  ?  " 

The  reply  came  from  the  grouse  : 

''  Whr-r-r,"  said  they,  as  they  suddenly  streaked  by — 
with  a  most  mortifying  immunity.  There  you  are  !  Alto- 
gether a  bad  business. 

Anyhow,  I  was  thinking  about  you,  and  of  what  to  tell 
you  in  my  letter  to-day.  Here  goes. 

I  was  speaking  about  Asher  suddenly  resigning  the 
Solicitor-Generalship  for  Scotland.  Asher's  case  in  some 
respects  was  a  very  sad  one.  He  was  a  living  bulwark 
to  the  cause  of  every  client  he  had.  His  presence, 
forensic  manner,  industry  and  convincing  power,  all  of 
the  very  first  order.  His  aloofness  was  no  doubt  against 
him.  Parliament  did  not  know  him.  He  was  in  it,  but 
not  of  it.  I  think  that  this  was  a  deplorable  misfortune. 

117 


n8  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

With  his  gifts,  he  would  have  adorned  Parliament  and 
moulded  the  history  of  his  country. 

Balfour,  his  senior  by  a  month  or  two,  was  of  a  different 
mould.  Asher  boldly  and  coldly  bludgeoned  his  anta- 
gonist; Balfour  with  a  winning  gesture,  and  with  infinite 
courtesy,  stilettoed  him.  The  latter's  memory  for  case 
law  was  prodigious;  he  had  no  less  industry  than  the 
former,  but  he  had  a  quicker  resource,  a  more  adroit 
persuasiveness  and  greater  accomplishments.  Asher 
drove  the  judges  along  the  road  of  reason;  Balfour  piped 
to  them,  and  they  danced  happily,  and  came  his  way. 

A  great  pair.  In  one  sense  they  were  too  near,  and 
their  equality  made  the  constant  seniorship  in  office  of 
the  one  a  disconcerting  circumstance.  At  least,  it  may 
have  been  so.  Anyhow,  Asher,  who,  under  a  massive 
exterior,  had  not  a  robust  constitution,  resigned  office. 

Semper  paratus:  ready,  aye  ready.  Yes,  of  course; 
just  so.  But,  my  dear  child,  when  you  get  either  a  sudden 
lift  or  a  knock-down  blow  from  the  totally  unexpected, 
fine  maxims  get  a  shake.  There  was  more  of  that  kind  of 
upsetting  coming  along  for  your  astonished  parent,  as  you 
will  presently  see.  Meantime,  Lord  Advocate  Balfour 
was  a  rare  treasure  of  a  chief — consideration  and  helpful- 
ness personified.  He  seemed  intuitively  to  recognize  my 
being  at  times  too  conscious  that  there  was  a  stiff  load 
to  shoulder ;  and  he  came,  like  the  good  man  and  colleague 
he  was,  and  he  took  the  heavy  end. 

The  work  was  steady  and  multiform,  but,  honestly,  it 
was  not  complex.  Once  the  newness,  for  instance,  of  the 
position  in  Edinburgh  of  a  Solicitor-General  settling  all 
the  criminal  work  of  Scotland  with  a  capable  team  of 
Deputes  who  were  all  his  seniors — once  that  newness 


THISTLE  AND  SHAMROCK  119 

passed  away,  and  once  it  was  seen  in  London  that  I  had 
taken  stock  of  the  desire  for  a  better  front  bench  attend- 
ance— a  thing  I  gave  with  a  great  good  will — the  smooth- 
ness of  the  going  was  noted.  We  were  running,  about  that 
time,  a  biggish  Local  Government  Bill  for  Scotland,  and 
the  Parliamentary  demands  were  severe;  but,  as  I  say, 
the  smoothness  of  the  going  was  noted.  This  may  have 
accounted  for  another  blow  from  the  unexpected  which 
nearly  knocked  me  over,  and  in  some  measure  broadened 
and  changed  the  current  of  my  life.  I  was  to  touch,  at 
its  very  quick,  the  politics  of  Ireland. 


It  turned  out  that  Morley  had  been  keeping  his  eye 
upon,  and  in  fact  stalking  me.  Greater  prominence  had, 
you  see,  been  given  to  my  becoming  Solicitor-General, 
because  the  Unionists,  although  I  had  entered  the  House 
only  about  eighteen  months  before,  and  stood  on  the 
same  ticket,  blundered  badly  in  contesting  the  seat.  A 
fluent  English  barrister  was  found  to  oppose  me,  and  he 
was  handsomely  beaten  after  a  rattling  contest.  The 
majority  was  nearly  doubled  and  the  Burghs  came  to  be 
looked  upon  as  a  Radical  stronghold. 

I  sometimes  think  that  the  measure  of  that  Parliament 
might  well  in  the  eye  of  the  historian  be  its  Opposition. 
The  Opposition's  three  characteristics  were — the  ability  of 
its  men,  the  efficiency  of  its  machine,  and,  withal,  the  hope- 
less short-sightedness  of  its  policy.  This  last  only  time 
could  reveal.  Has  it  not  done  so?  Think  of  it  in  things 
small  and  great !  The  Scotch  Grand  Committee — a  mere 
trifle,  a  harmless  commonplace  of  procedure — then  made 
quite  a  battlefield.  At  the  other  end  of  the  scale  the  Home 


120  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

Rule  Bill,  with  contention  enough  to  threaten  the  very 
existence  of  Parliamentary  government,  a  Bill  odious  then 
beyond  all  thinking  to  such  men,  and  thrown  out  in 
another  place,  but  a  Bill  which  to-day  the  same  types  of 
men  recognize  to  be  of  a  safety  and  a  moderation  so 
singular  that  what  was  at  that  time  rejected  with  fury  and 
with  scorn  would  to-day  be  accepted  with  meekness  and 
with  gratitude. 

At  the  height  of  this  fury  and  scorn  period,  in  the 
spring  of  1895,  you  may  imagine  the  nerve  required  even 
of  an  Irish  Chief  Secretary  in  bringing  in  a  Land  Bill 
which  was  to  amplify  and  crown  the  remedial  Irish  legisla- 
tion of  1870  and  1 88 1.  I  need  not  go  into  these  things, 
except  to  tell  you  that  the  Bill  came  to  grief  with  the 
Government  which  framed  it :  but  its  denouncers  saw  its 
value  when  their  turn  came,  and  its  principles  reappeared 
and  found  their  way  to  law  under  the  distinguished  Chief 
Secretaryship  of  Mr.  George  Wyndham. 

One  day  that  spring  your  mother  and  I  were  walking 
in  the  precincts  of  the  House,  when  we  were  accosted 
by  Morley.  We  were  old  Cluny  friends.  Said  he  : 

"  Mrs.  Shaw,  I  have  just  been  to  your  husband's 
room." 

Then  to  me  : 

"  Shaw,  I  want  a  word  or  two  with  you.  When  could 
we  meet  ?  " 

We  made  a  fixture  for  the  following  morning, 

"  What  will  this  be  next? "  said  the  dear  one. 

Next  day  he  said  : 

"  You  know  that  there  is  a  Land  Bill  for  Ireland 
coming  forward.  Well,  it  is,  of  course,  full  of  law,  a 
thing  I  am  supposed  to  know  nothing  about.  Now  owing 


JHISTLE   AND  SHAMROCK  121 

to  the  self-denying  ordinance  of  the  Irish,  none  of  their 
party,  not  even  their  lawyers,  can  be  in  the  Government. 
So  there  are  the  MacDermott  and  his  colleague,  Attorney 
and  Solicitor,  helping,  of  course,  privately,  but  they  are 
outside.  Inside,  here  in  the  House,  here  am  I,  with  no 
law  officer.  To  come  to  the  point :  I  want  you." 

"  Me  ?  "  said  I ;  "  I  would  do  anything  to  help  you 
all,  but  how  could  I  do  that?  I  should  have  to  learn  it 
all  up.  And  besides,  what  would  Mr.  Balfour  say?  I 
could  not  desert  him.  Is  this  your  own  idea  ?  " 

"  It  is  more  than  that,"  said  he.  "  The  Cabinet 
approves  and  the  Lord  Advocate  has  been  sounded  and 
is  willing." 

So  there  you  are.  Off  went  the  brave  woman  to  her 
dear  flock — all  the  four  by  this  time  getting  the  most  solid 
and  sensible  schooling  that  Edinburgh  could  provide — 
knowing  full  well  that  this  meant  a  fresh  invasion  of  my 
private  practice  and  a  fresh  menace  to  our  family  life. 
And  I  to  internment :  fresh  studies  in  law  and  history ; 
conferences  with  Lord  Spencer,  with  Irishmen  like  Sexton, 
Dillon,  Redmond  and  O'Connor,  and — day  after  day — 
with  Morley. 

Slender,  slender,  was  the  equipment.  It  stood  some- 
thing like  this  : — (i)  For  some  literary  purpose  years 
before  I  had  read  a  good  deal  for  an  article  to  the  British 
Quarterly  Review  on  "  The  Union  with  England  of  Scot- 
land and  Ireland." 

"  Where  could  I  get  something  ? "  said  the  Chief 
Secretary  to  me  one  day,  when  I  was  pointing  a  contrast, 
"  some  kind  of  comparative  statement  of  the  two  cases  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  I.  And  then,  after  a  pause, 
"  unless,  by-the-by,  it  be  in  a  paper  I  wrote  myself."  So 


122  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

it  was  sent  for,  and  the  article  perhaps  served  a  turn. 
How  nothing  is  ever  lost ! 

(2)  For  some  debating  purpose  I  had  read  and  studied 
Barry  O'Brien's  "  History  of  the  Irish  Land  Acts." 

(3)  The  third  was  the  most  curious  of  all.    Once  in  a 
division  on  the  Home  Rule  Bill,  I  had  gone  into  the  lobby 
in  support  of  an  amendment  by  the  little  Parnellite  party. 
The  purpose  of  it  was  frankly  to  call  the  proposed  Irish 
Legislature  a  Parliament.    What  a  timid  pack  party  men 
are  !     There  were  only  seven  of  us  in  that  lobby.     Two 
were  Redmonds — John,  a  born  leader,  orator  and  patriot; 
and  William,  who  afterwards  showed  his  desire  for  a  true 
reconciliation  between   Ireland  and   England  by  laying 
down  his  life  for  the  Empire. 

'  What  makes  you,"  said  John  Redmond  to  me,  "  take 
such  an  interest  in  Ireland  and  the  like  of  this  ?  " 

"  Well,"  said  I ;  "  my  answer  is — it  was  Sydney 
Smith." 

"Sydney  Smith?"  said  he;  "what  do  you  mean?" 

"  Many  years  ago,"  I  replied,  "  I  read  certain  remark- 
able reviews,  in  his  collected  Essays,  of  the  books  of 
Henry  Parnell  and  other  authors  on  Ireland,  its  history, 
its  misgovernment,  its  Penal  Laws." 

What  an  unfolding  of  wrong,  shortsightedness,  re- 
venge, ascendancy,  misery,  these  books  reveal ! 

Shocked  at  the  bedraggled  spectacle,  Sydney  Smith, 
in  a  burst  of  wrath,  makes  his  memorable  outburst : 

"So  great  and  so  long  has  been  the  misgovernment  of  that 
country  that  we  verily  believe  the  Empire  would  be  much 
stronger  if  everything  was  open  sea  between  England  and  the 
Atlantic,  and  if  skates  and  codfish  swam  over  the  fair  land 
of  Ulster." 


THISTLE  AND  SHAMROCK  123 

Of  this  I  reminded  Redmond  :  We  became  friends ; 
and  once  on  the  eve  of  a  critical  debate  he  asked  me  for 
the  volume,  which  I  took  to  him. 

I  don't  want  you  to  go  to  sleep  without  getting  the 
benefit  of  another  of  these  passages  which — both  for  his- 
torical interest  and  for  political  purposes — made  such  a 
deep  impression  on  your  father's  mind.  So  I  am  writing 
it  down.  It  is  on  that  penal  code  which  burnt  into  the 
Irish  mind  an  ineradicable  belief  in  the  appalling  injustice 
and  unwisdom  of  England.  Read  this  : — 

"  During  the  reigns  of  George  I  and  George  II  the  Irish 
Roman  Catholics  were  disabled  from  holding  any  Civil  or 
Military  office,  from  voting  at  elections,  from  admission  into 
corporations,  from  practising  law  or  physic.  A  younger 
brother  by  turning  Protestant  might  deprive  his  elder  brother 
of  his  birthright;  by  the  same  process  he  might  force  his 
father,  under  the  name  of  a  liberal  provision,  to  yield  up  to 
him  a  part  of  his  landed  property,  and  if  an  eldest  son,  he 
might  in  the  same  way  reduce  his  father's  fee  simple  to  a  life 
estate.  A  Papist  was  disabled  from  purchasing  freehold  lands, 
and  even  from  holding  long  leases ;  and  any  person  might  take 
his  Catholic  neighbour's  house  by  paying  ^5  for  it.  If  a 
child  of  a  Catholic  father  turned  Protestant  he  was  taken  away 
from  his  father  and  put  into  the  hands  of  a  Protestant  relation. 
No  Papist  could  purchase  a  freehold,  or  lease  for  more  than 
thirty  years,  or  inherit  from  an  intestate  Protestant  nor  from 
an  intestate  Catholic,  nor  dwell  in  Limerick  or  Galway,  nor 
hold  an  Advowson,  nor  buy  an  Annuity  for  life.  ^"50  was 
given  for  discovering  a  Popish  Archbishop,  .£30  for  a  Popish 
Clergyman,  and  ten  shillings  for  a  Schoolmaster." 

How  often  have  I  told  you  that  to  plant  antipathies 
is  to  give  root  to  what  may  last  for  generations ;  so  often, 
alas !  do  effects  linger,  long  after  causes  have  been  re- 
moved. Thus  it  is  that  every  i2th  of  July  in  Belfast  still 
continues  to  be  a  disfigurement  to  civil  life. 


124  LETTERS  TO  ISABEL 

Then  is  not  the  following  a  political  lesson  worth 
remembering  and  remembering?  Years  and  years  ago  I 
wrote  it  out,  and  I  find  it  alongside  of  my  Sydney  Smith 
note.  For  the  life  of  me  I  cannot  place  its  authorship. 
Was  it  Smith  who  composed  it,  or  Sir  Erskine  May,  or 
was  it  even  John  Milton  himself?, 

"  It  is  a  vain  thing  to  boast  of  the  severity  of  laws,  and 
keenly  prosecute  disorders  already  committed,  which,  though 
it  may  have  the  appearance  of  justice,  yet  many  will  think  it 
not  convenient;  for  if  you  suffer  the  minds  of  people  to  be 
galled  and  chafed  with  a  continued  train  of  hardships  and 
severities,  until  their  manners  be  corrupted,  and  then  punish 
them  for  these  offences  to  which  they  thought  their  circum- 
stances necessitated  them,  what  else  will  be  concluded  from 
this  but  that  you  first  make  them  offenders  and  then  punish 
them  for  their  offences?  " 

How  awful  and  how  frequent  have  been  the  ex- 
emplifications of  this  truth !  To-day  do  we  not  feel 
the  pinch  of  it  in  every  act  and  scene  of  the  tragedy  of 
Ireland  ? 

Do  forgive  me,  dear  Isabel,  if  I  have  forgotten  to  be 
lightsome.  Some  aspects  of  life  and  history  are  very 
grim. 

Anyhow,  it  was  on  top  of  this  thin  subsoil  that  the 
seeds  of  my  instruction  had  to  be  sown.  When  the  debate 
on  the  second  reading  of  the  Bill  came  on,  I  followed  Mr. 
Chamberlain,  moving  the  adjournment  of  the  debate. 
Next  day  was  trying  enough.  Chamberlain  came  down 
to  the  House  in  courtesy  for  the  reply,  and  he,  Mr.  Balfour 
and  the  others  were  generous,  notably  Mr.  Sexton  speak- 
ing for  the  Irish  party.  As  I  left  the  House  Mr.  Speaker 
Peel,  austerity  itself,  called  me  to  his  side  and  spoke 
words  of  most  touching  approbation.  The  public  prints 


THISTLE   AND  SHAMROCK  125 

gave  me  a  new  kind  of  title ;  in  addition  to  being  Solicitor- 
General  for  Scotland,  I  was,  if  you  please,  called  "  Under 
Secretary  for  Ireland  "  ! 

Meantime,  life  had  become  a  little  less  straitened.  On 
August  22,  1894,  a  Treasury  Minute  was  passed  raising 
the  Lord  Advocate's  salary  from  a  little  over  ,£3,000  to 
,£5,000,  and  the  Solicitor-General's  salary  from  about 
£"950  to  £ 2,000.  The  Scotch  Members  were  all  agreed 
about  this,  and  Graham  Murray — rarest  of  clever  heads 
and  staunchest  of  friends — nipped  in  opportunely  on  the 
Scotch  Grand  Committee  on  some  Bill  and  drove  the  point 
home. 

That  was  the  true  reason  of  the  change  of  figure.  I 
fear  that  I  gave  a  different  version.  Spencer,  the  gayest 
and  most  attractive  of  whips,  said  to  me': 

'  Tommy  Shaw,  tell  me  how  it  is  that  you  have 
only  been  six  months  in  office  and  have  doubled  your 
screw?  " 

I  answered  on  the  nail : 

"  Sheer  merit,  Bobby  Spencer,"  said  I ;  "  sheer  merit." 
"  Sheer  merit,"  said  he ;  "I  see ; "  and  he  passed  on, 
carefully  adjusting  his  immaculate  collar. 

But  the  Parliamentary  battle  grew  keener  and  keener. 
The  country  showed  signs  of  restiveness  and  distrust. 
Smaller  and  perilously  smaller  grew  our  majorities  on  a 
division.  The  whipping  on  both  sides  was  merciless.  One 
evening  I  dined  at  Berkeley  Square  with  Lord  Rosebery ; 
there  was  some  anxiety  on  foot,  and  they  waited  my 
arrival.  On  entering,  behind  the  hour,  the  Premier  ex- 
claimed :  "  Ah !  here  at  last  is  our  Solicitor-General." 

I  replied  seriously :  "  It  has  been  a  close  division  :  a 
narrow  shave;  a  majority  of  two." 


126  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

"On  which  side?"  said  the  host  imperturbably. 

"  On  our  side,"  said  I. 

'  Then  that  is  all  right,"  said  he ;  "  now  let  us  all  go 
safely  in  to  dinner." 

This  kind  of  thing  could  not  last.     It  was  plain  that 
our  overthrow  was  at  hand. 

Enough,  enough !     Another  budget  some  day  soon, 

from 

Your  estimable  friend  and 

FATHER. 


LETTER    XXI 

A    POLITICAL   LECTURE 

Craigmyle. 

September  20,  1920. 
DEAREST  MAIDIE, 

Think  what  it  was  to  be  thrown  out  into  the  cold. 
No  payment  of  Members  of  Parliament  in  those  days  : 
not  a  penny.  Fought  five  elections  in  my  time  :  three 
elections  in  as  many  years.  Any  help  from  any  organiza- 
tion or  any  fund  except  my  own  savings?  Not  a  penny. 
I  remember  well  after  the  Cordite  vote,  in  1895,  walking 
back  to  Queen  Anne's  Mansions  and  saying  to  your 
mother  in  the  midst  of  a  party  of  friends  : 

'  We  are  out,  my  dear — out  for  ten  years." 

True  it  was.  It  made  a  difference,  and  there  was  much 
to  consider. 

The  profession  had  been  very  forbearing  of  my 
absences  and  very  mindful  of  me  when  I  could  be 
on  the  spot;  and  it  seemed  fairly  clear  that  if  my 
presence  in  Edinburgh  could  be  assured  so  also  would 
my  practice.  Thus,  if  we  had  been  minded  that 
way,  we  could  have  accepted  the  defeat  as  a  notice 
to  quit. 

But  the  idea  of  giving  the  battle  up  never  crossed  our 
minds.  To  dub  this  a  felt  call  to  continued  public  service 
would  be  to  put  it  on  too  high  a  pedestal.  Simply  it  was 
that  I  loved  the  House  of  Commons — the  men,  the  life, 

127 


128  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

the  moving  panorama  of  affairs.  As  to  the  chance  of 
helping  good  causes  along,  it  lay  there,  rather  than  in  the 
more  comfortable  line  and  the  narrower  view  of  private 
advantage. 

If  I  ever  had  any  doubt,  and  I  had  none,  it  would 
have  been  dispelled  by  the  loyalty  of  the  Liberals  of  the 
Burghs.  Their  support  was  unwavering :  and  their 
handling  of  a  fight  a  thing  to  see.  Everything  political 
they  translated  into  combat.  When  towards  the  close  of 
my  first  Session  I  paired  with  Lord  Randolph  Churchill 
there  was  a  shaking  of  the  head.  They  thought  a  pair  was 
a  fight.  And  one  Hawick  weaver  allowed  to  another, 
'  Weel,  Maister  Shaw's  met  his  match  this  time  "f  There 
was  no  manner  of  coalition  of  parties,  or  compromise  of 
principle,  with  them ;  their  flag  was  never  struck,  never  at 
half-mast.  As  broad  hints  of  this  kind  of  thing,  however 
— I  mean  coalition  on  the  one  hand  and  compromise  on 
the  other — were  presently  coming  along,  the  Border 
staunchness  was  to  me  a  real  stand-by.  You  shall  hear 
of  that  topic  in  a  little. 

So  then !  It  was  the  Wilderness.  We  were  in  oppo- 
sition :  very  much  so  indeed.  You  would  hardly  be  in- 
terested in  the  daily  hammer  and  tongs  work.  Education 
was  a  great  topic  :  my  text  always  being  that  to  clericalize 
education  is  to  sterilize  it.  Gradually  in  and  about  that 
subject  a  party  of  forwards  was  formed  on  the  opposition 
side,  and  more  was  to  be  heard  of  nearly  every  one  of 
them.  To  a  Government  supported  by  a  docile  and  over- 
whelming crowd,  they  were  a  particularly  aggravating 
band. 

In  Committee — all  of  them  except  Buxton  and  myself 
below  the  gangway — they  did  a  real  service,  analytically 


A   POLITICAL  LECTURE  129 

on  the  bills  and  educationally  on  the  public.  There  were 
Robson,  McKenna,  Macnamara,  Sydney  Buxton.  English- 
men; Lloyd  George,  Herbert  Lewis  and  others,  Welsh- 
men; Scotland  was  nearly  all  on  the  ultra-respectable 
side — and  as  the  waggish  and  very  brainy  Dr.  Wallace 
used  to  say,  Shaw  had  to  play  the  part  of  Lion  Rampant 
himself. 

But  none  of  us  could  hold  the  candle  to  Lloyd  George. 
He  developed  an  amazing  Parliamentary  dexterity,  and 
no  man  in  charge  of  a  Government  Bill  could  afford  to 
disregard  him.  He  was  no  obstructionist — oh  no  :  but 
the  moral  anxiety  with  which  he  could  invest  a  trifle  of 
expression  and  show  the  superiority,  say,  of  the  word 
"  which  "  to  the  word  "  that,"  was  enough  to  send  the 
Minister  in  charge  of  a  measure  into  fits  of  fury :  the 
rest  of  us,  of  course,  into  fits  of  laughter.  Then,  out 
of  all  this  cloud  of  finesse,  suddenly  would  come  from 
him  a  gleam  of  real  eloquence,  revealing  dangers  and 
defects  in  the  Bill  and  a  new  and  better  way.  I 
suppose  it  is  wicked  to  be  proud  of  it,  but  we  had  a 
great  time. 

In  the  midst  of  all  this  struggle — by-the-bye,  why  was 
it  so  irresponsible?  Why,  my  dear,  because  the  re- 
sponsible quarters — as  we  came  to  see  more  and  more 
publicly — the  responsible  quarters  were  not  on  what  you 
might  call  very  easy  terms  with  each  other. 

There  were  Temptations  in  the  Wilderness. 


One  of  these  Temptations  was  Liberal  Imperialism. 
As  for  Imperialism,  that  is  to  say,  the  swashbuckler  type 
which  claimed  the  name,  it  needed  no  lift.  It  was  sup- 


130  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

ported  well  enough  and  more  congenially  in  the  other 
camp,  where  militarism  was  at  its  pranks  here  and  there, 
and  was  desperate  for  more  adventurous  cantrips  than 
even  the  Jameson  Raid  which  was  coming  along. 

And  as  for  Liberalism,  the  chef  d'ceuvre  of  the  party 
of  Temptation  was,  as  Tim  Healy  wittily  said  to  me,  to 
put  Home  Rule  into  cold  storage.  Home  Rule,  with  all 
the  Herculean  work  of  Mr.  Gladstone  and  the  party  upon 
it,  and  that  Irish  alliance  which  had  been  a  model  of 
assiduous  Parliamentary  constancy — all  this  courage  and 
loyalty  and  ardour  to  be  damped  down,  the  party  machine 
to  be  put  under  reconstruction,  and  Home  Rule  to  be 
put  into  cold  storage. 

I  know,  I  wish  to  know,  nothing  of  the  private 
differences  which  people  buzzed  about.  Sir  William 
Harcourt  was  our  leader  in  the  Commons,  and  all  I  know 
is  that  he  was  my  hearty  and  encouraging  and  entertaining 
friend. 

"  Ah,"  said  he  to  me  one  day  before  we  went  into 
opposition,  and  after  I  had  been  to  Scotland  officially  at 
the  General  Assembly,  "  ah,  Mr.  Solicitor-General,  come 
and  tell  me  all  about  it.  So  the  Fathers  and  Brethren 
have  dispersed  :  the  Lord  High  Commissioner  has  vacated 
Holyrood;  and  I  suppose  the  Marchioness  has  given  up 
flirting  with  the  Moderator  ?  " 

When  we  were  out  of  office  and  getting  more  and 
more  into  the  trough  of  the  wave  his  gaiety  did  not 
desert  him. 

"  Tell  me,  Sir  William,"  said  I,  when  we  were  seated 
together  during  some  dull  debate  on  which  he  was  keeping 
an  eye,  "  tell  me  something  of  your  life  at  the  Parlia- 
mentary Bar." 


A   POLITICAL  LECTURE  131 

He  gave  that  gurgling  chuckle  of  his  which  shook  his 
heavy  frame,  and  then  he  said  : 

"  I  was  once,  about  the  beginning,  taken  in  as  third 
counsel.  My  seniors  were  Mr.  Hope  Scott  and  Mr.  Pope. 
We  were  for  Lord  — • — ,  and  we  were  to  oppose  an  Irish 

Railway  scheme.    So  we  had  a  conference  and  Lord 

came  to  it. 

"  Said  Hope  Scott,  '  Would  your  Lordship  tell  us  in 
a  word  what  your  case  is  ? ' 

'  My  case,'  said  his  Lordship,  '  is  that  the  Directors 
are  all  damned  scoundrels/ 

"  '  Any  more  ? '  said  Scott. 

"'No,'  said  Lord  -  — .  'That's  enough,  isn't  it? 
That  is  my  case.' ' 

We  both  laughed ;  and  I  said  :  "  Very  definite." 

Then  he  resumed  : 

'  The  very  thing  I  said  at  the  blessed  conference.     I 

struck  in,  '  Your  instructions,  Lord  ,  are  very  clear. 

You  wish  the  case  run  on  those  lines  ?  ' 
'  I  do,'  said  his  Lordship. 

"  So  we  all  agreed  that  there  was  no  more  to  be  said. 
And  when  the  Bill  came  on,  of  course,  Hope  Scott  and 
Pope  weren't  there." 

"What  happened?"  said  I. 

"  Oh,"  he  said,  "  I  ran  the  case  according  to  instruc- 
tions. I  cross-examined  the  first  director.  It  rather 
appeared  that,  after  all,  there  was  something  in  Lord  -  -'s 
idea.  When  the  cross-examination  finished,  my  clerk 
pulled  my  gown  and  said  to  me  : 

"  '  Lord  has  given  instructions  to  double  your 

brief  fee.' 

"  Then    came    on    another    director.     At    the    close 


132  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

of  his   evidence  my  clerk   again   pulled   my   gown   and 
said  : 

'  Lord has  given  instructions  to  treble  your  brief 

fee.' 

"  I  turned  to  him  and  said  :  '  Any  more  directors? ' 

"And  were  there?  "  said  I  to  him. 

"  Alas,  no,  Shaw,"  said  he.    "  They  wouldn't  face  the 
music.    The  Bill  collapsed." 


It  seems  a  bit  of  a  shame  to  go  from  this  nonsense 
to  a  serious  strain.  But  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  think 
that  there  was  not  a  mighty  weight  of  dead  earnest  in  the 
work  of  those  days.  I  am  not  speaking  of  the  legal  work 
and  the  hardship  of  even  attempting  to  lead  two  lives 
four  hunded  miles  apart.  But  in  Parliament,  I  do  think 
that  good  seed  was  being  sown. 

Some  of  it,  alas !  may  be  late  in  ripening.  Take  this 
instance.  Many  years  of  study  had  convinced  me  that 
not  a  few  of  the  social  ills  which  infect,  and  are  apt  to 
convulse,  society  are,  there  or  thereabouts,  owing  to  laws 
which  favour  the  aggregation  of  land  in  the  hands  of  the 
few,  and  impede  its  distribution  among  the  many.  Many 
things  lead  to  this;  it  is  a  danger  to  the  State.  Many 
conventions,  including  family  pride,  favour  it;  and  the 
legislation  against  the  danger  is  hampered  on  every  hand. 

Mark  this,  my  lady,  and  mark  it  well :  for  after  a  year 
or  two,  when  women  fully  realize  what  it  is  to  have  the 
vote,  you  may  hear  more  about  it.  By  the  laws  both  of 
England  and  Scotland  landed  estates  are  succeeded  to 
by  the  eldest  son.  The  lot  of  the  younger  sons  was  easier 
in  former  days.  One,  say,  under  the  law  of  patronage, 


A   POLITICAL   LECTURE  133 

went  into  the  Church;  another,  under  the  law  of  pur- 
chase, went  into  the  Army.  The  younger  sons,  and  all 
the  girls,  succeeded  by  the  law  to  not  a  single  acre.  The 
boys  may  rough  it :  so  may  viragos — I  do  not  speak  of 
them.  But  did  God  ever  make  a  sweeter  type  than  the 
British  gentlewoman,  her  with  the  clear  eye,  the  gentle 
and  the  dainty  upbringing,  her  life  and  hands  full  of  the 
ministry  of  loving  kindness  :  yet  so  often,  and  so  often 
at  life's  crisis,  made  by  a  shameless  law  of  inheritance 
to  fold  up  her  slender  belongings  and  to  face  the  world 
"  a  penniless  lass  with  a  long  pedigree  "  ? 

So  I  tabled  a  little  Bill  with  the  modest  purpose  of 
cutting  the  system  in  Scotland  up  by  the  roots,  and  assimi- 
lating the  law  of  succession  to  land  to  that  of  all  other 
possessions.  Result,  primogeniture  would  go.  Daughters 
and  younger  sons  would  have  equal  rights  with  their  eldest 
brother,  property  would  be  distributed  or  come  into  the 
market  so  that  the  proceeds  would  be  distributed,  and 
be  shared  penny  and  penny  about. 

Add  to  this  awful  consummation  of  plain  and  simple 
justice  this  other  stroke.  In  Scotland  the  dead  hand 
cannot  rule  all;  there  is,  as  the  lawyers  say,  a  legal  limit 
to  the  power  of  testacy.  Why  not  ?  said  the  law  of  Rome. 
Why  not?  say  the  laws  of  many  European  countries.  And 
they  say  it  of  all  the  deceased's  property ;  whereas  in  Scot- 
land they  say  it  of  all  except  land  :  while  in  England  they 
do  not  say  it  at  all.  The  power  of  testacy  is  unlimited 
there  :  the  dead  hand  rules  all. 

During  the  French  Revolution  it  was,  I  think,  Mira- 
beau  who  exclaimed  :  "  A  testament.  What  is  a  testa- 
ment ?  It  is  the  will  of  a  man  who  has  no  longer  any  will, 
with  regard  to  property  which  is  no  longer  his  property." 


134  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

And  two  of  the  extraordinary  facts  in  the  French  Revolu- 
tion case  are  these  :  Distribution  of  property  among  the 
members  of  a  family  when  the  father  dies  is  secured  by 
giving  to  each  of,  say,  his  four  children  one-fifth,  leaving 
only  the  remaining  fifth  at  the  father's  disposal.  Do  you 
know  that  this  very  provision  was  drawn  under  the  master 
hand  and  eye  of  Napoleon  himself?  While,  secondly, 
when  Louis  Philippe  came  to  the  throne,  he  attempted  to 
rear  up  again  the  old  vast  succession  scandal  of  family 
pride.  But  he  completely  failed,  amid  the  acclamations 
of  all  society  except  the  courtiers  of  the  day,  and  Paris 
was  illuminated  for  three  nights  over  the  defeat  of  this 
Bourbon  reaction. 

Oh,  dearie,  dear,  such  a  long  circumbendibus !  But 
you  ought  to  know  that  that  was  the  kind  of  thing,  from 
the  law  of  Rome,  of  France,  of  England  and  of  Scotland, 
that  went  to  the  making  of  the  aforesaid  modest  little 
mouse  of  a  Bill.  Was  it  ridiculous?  Of  course  the  law 
societies,  arch  defenders  of  the  status  quo,  almost  said 
it  was.  But,  my  dear  lady,  I  hope  you  will  have  a  long 
as  well  as  a  useful  life.  Great  changes  are  in  front  of 
us.  Women  are  feeling  their  power,  their  rights.  Labour, 
on  the  one  hand,  is  learning  the  lesson  of  the  dangers  of 
confiscation  or  a  convulsive  disintegration  of  society,  and, 
on  the  other,  it  sticks  to  its  determination  that  the  aggre- 
gation of  property  must  be  ended  on  the  lines  of  a  radical 
change  to  justice  in  succession.  In  all  ranks  of  society 
except  the  shallow  and  the  thoughtless,  men  muse  as  did 

Burns  :— 

"  'Tis  hardly  in  a  body's  power 
To  keep  at  times  from  being-  sour, 
To  see  how  thing's  are  shared." 

It  is  for  wise  men  and  women  to  turn  this  feeling  into 


A   POLITICAL   LECTURE  135 

safe,  honourable,  just  channels.  Perhaps  some  day  the 
little  measure  of  healing  which  I  moved  on  and  on  in 
the  Order  Paper  of  the  Commons  for  years,  may  under 
a  more  auspicious  sky,  and  in  far  wiser  charge,  see  the 
light,  and  work  its  beneficent  purpose. 

A  political  lecture  ?  Yes  :  yes  !  Lapse  oratorical ! 
But  I  promise  you,  my  one  and  only. 

Ever  your  own, 

S.  OF  D. 

P.S. — Out  in  the  cold,  did  I  say — out  in  the  cold? 
What  then?  Should  we  simply  stand  and  wait  for  better 
weather?  Still  colder  then.  Or  should  we  fall  to  work 
where  work  was  to  be  done,  and  find  it  bracing?  Yes, 
the  latter,  surely,  even  in  the  dark  decade  1895  to  1905. 
The  Wilderness,  did  I  say  ?  And,  as  you  shall  hear,  there 
were  indeed  Temptations  in  the  Wilderness.  What  then  ? 
Should  we  listen  to  them,  my  dear,  or  should  we  fight 
them  ?  These  were  the  dilemmas  of  the  Opposition  years. 

Different  men  took  different  lines.  Work  came  my 
way — work  on  great  public  topics  both  in  Church  and 
State — and  so  did  combat,  heavy  fighting.  Good-bye, 
however,  for  the  present,  mere  record  cf  the  Ins  and  Outs. 
Now  is  our  chance.  "  Fresh  woods  and  pastures  new." 
You  will  ask,  and  I  shall  answer,  some  of  yuur  questions 
on  non-political  affairs.  We  are  off  on  our  Grand  Tour. 
But  we  shall  meet  again  in  the  Parliament  fields.  Mean- 
time, as  the  centuries  closed  and  opened,  big  issues  were 
afoot. 


LETTER    XXII 

THE    WIZARDS 

9,  Bolton  Gardens,  S.W '.5. 

July   15,   1920. 
MY  DARLING  ISABEL, 

You  have  often  asked  me  to  tell  you  about  any  literary 
men  I  have  come  up  against;  and  I  have  been  wondering 
whether  I  could  rummage  in  my  memory  for  that  kind 
of  stuff. 

When  I  entered  Parliament  the  connexion  of  literary 
men  with  politics,  or  rather  the  identification  of  literary 
men  with  public  men  was  commoner  than  I  think  it  has 
ever  been  since. 

When  in  the  year  1894  I  became  Solicitor-General  for 
Scotland,  I  found  myself  surrounded  on  the  front  bench 
by  men  who  were  known  far  and  wide  in  the  literary 
world.  Think  of  it !  I  do  not  mention  Gladstone  himself, 
who  dropped,  alas  !  out  of  leadership  a  few  months  before 
I  took  office,  nor  do  I  mention  Lord  Rosebery,  whose 
high  literary  gifts  shone  in  whatever  he  wrote,  and  almost 
in  whatever  he  spoke.  Lord  Rosebery  was  in  the  House 
of  Lords;  but  there  on  the  front  bench  of  the  Commons 
were  Bryce,  the  author  of  many  portly  volumes,  but  notably 
of  "  The  Constitution  of  America  " ;  Morley,  whose  ex- 
quisite and  daring  papers  from  the  time  of  his  editor- 
ship of  the  Fortnightly  had  been  collected  and  published, 
and  who  had  followed  these  by  many  other  notable  books, 

136 


THE   WIZARDS  137 

his  "  Life  of  Cobden  "  being  one  of  the  best;  and,  above 
all,  there  was  Trevelyan,  as  quick  and  sensitive  a  soul 
to  literary  excellence  as  I  have  ever  known,  whose 
masterly  "  Life  of  Macaulay  "  stands  between  his  early 
works,  like  "  Cawnpore "  and  "  Competition  Wallah," 
and  his  later  more  diffuse  but  still  invaluable  work  on 
"  American  History,"  as  a  great  central  peak  stands  in 
a  fine  range  of  mountains  and  of  gentle  and  beautiful 
foothills. 

These  were  the  "  Big  Three  "  — Bryce,  Morley  and 
Trevelyan,  while  there  were  others  of  lesser  note,  like 
George  Russell,  Acland  and  Sydney  Buxton,  who  wielded 
a  facile  and  an  accurate  pen.  My  delights  still  were  in 
literature,  and  the  association  with  these  men  must  surely 
have  quickened  the  mind. 

To  come  away  from  public  men  altogether,  I  cannot 
say  that  my  recollections  would  help  you  to  fresh  views 
about  many  of  those  I  am  about  to  name.  Stevenson  I 
saw,  but  never  knew,  and  I  saw  him  once  and  once  only, 
for  he  passed  to  the  Bar  at  Edinburgh  I  think  only  two 
days  after  me,  and  I  remember  seeing  him,  with  his  very 
white  wig  and  his  glossy  dark  hair,  his  complexion  of  an 
ivory  pallor  and  his  gleaming  dark  eyes.  I  knew  shortly 
afterwards  from  friends  these  two  things  about  him  : 

Friend  No.  i,  a  professor  at  the  University  and  a 
practising  barrister,  told  me  this.  A  few  days  after 
Stevenson  went  to  the  Bar  he  had  got  a  guinea  sent  to 
him,  with  "  instructions."  His  sole  duty  was  to  ask  the 
Judge  for  intimation  and  service  of  a  Petition  on  the  party 
against  whom  it  was  directed.  All  he  had  to  do  was  to 
stand  up  at  the  Bar  and  utter  three  words  interrogatively, 
"  Intimation  and  Service?  "  But  he  was  a  mass  of  nerves, 


138  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

and  these  three  words  he  could  not  utter,  and  he  besought 
his  friend  to  go  into  Court  and  make  the  little  motion  for 
him.  I  never  heard  of  his  earning  another  guinea  as  an 
advocate. 

I  did  hear  of  him,  however,  a  year  or  two  afterwards 
from  Sir  Walter  Simpson,  Friend  No.  2,  also  an  advocate. 
They  were  wandering  on  the  banks,  I  think  of  the  Loire, 
together,  and  Simpson  told  me  that  they  had  to  record  in 
each  village  they  passed  through,  among  other  things,  their 
ages.  Part  of  their  frolic  was  that  at  each  place  the  one 
would  grow  a  year  older  and  the  other  a  year  younger. 
Stevenson  went  on  in  front  composing  madrigals.  Simp- 
son's progress  was  slower,  as  he  was  collecting  moths  and 
butterflies.  As  they  neared  a  village  Stevenson  was  seized 
by  the  police  and,  as  he  had  nothing  on  him  but  his  clothes, 
and  these  of  the  shabbiest  order,  and  as  he  had  no  pass- 
port, and  as  he  could  give  no  intelligent  account  of  him- 
self, he  was  lodged  in  prison.  Part  of  his  statement  had 
been  that  he  was  travelling  with  a  baronet,  and,  sure 
enough,  in  an  hour  or  two,  when  the  baronet  arrived,  he 
was  lodged  in  prison  too,  the  suspicion  against  him  being 
that  the  authorities  knew  nothing  of  baronets,  but  that 
a  baron  would  not  walk  on  his  own  feet  or  without  a  fine 
retinue  !  I  think,  however,  Simpson  had  passports,  and 
after  some  hours  they  were  liberated.  Stevenson,  trying 
to  put  the  best  face  upon  it,  spoke  kindly  to  the  jailor's 
wife  and  her  children,  but  she  brusquely  ordered  him  off, 
telling  him  that  she  knew  quite  well  he  had  come  to  sing 
at  the  Fair !  Stevenson  does  allude  to  the  affair  in  his 
writings,  but  Simpson  assured  me  that  he  was  quite  un- 
strung by  the  incidents  of  that  evening. 

Another  thing,  however,  about  Stevenson  you  should 


THE   WIZARDS  139 

know.  When  the  new  books  came  out  just  about  that 
time,  I  got  hold  of  "  Virginibus  Puerisque."  "  There," 
said  I  to  myself,  "  there  is  quality  at  last.  English  litera- 
ture is  not  dead.  I  must  keep  my  eye  upon  that  man." 
That  was  briskly  followed  by  his  being  nominated  as  a 
competitor  for  the  office  of  Professor  of  Constitutional 
History  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh;  a  position  the 
nomination  to  which  was  in  the  gift  of  the  Faculty  of 
Advocates.  A  large  meeting  was  held.  I  was  but  a 
youngster,  but  I  seconded  Stevenson's  nomination.  The 
other  man — an  excellent  man  of  the  ordinary  type,  by 
name  Kirkpatrick — was  elected  by  about  200  votes, 
Stevenson's  entire  following  being  only  seven  in  number ! 
I  dare  say  if  the  nomination  had  been  a  year  or  two  later 
the  Bar  of  Scotland  would  have  known  better  the  genius 
that  was  in  their  midst — my  only  knowledge  of  him  was 
through  the  book  I  have  mentioned — but,  as  I  say,  its 
quality  was  unmistakable — and  Stevenson  might  have 
been  elected  Professor.  How  well  it  was  ordered  that  it 
was  not  so  !  The  drudgery  of  such  a  job  would  have 
killed  a  man  of  his  lively  imagination,  his  subtle  instincts 
and  his  poor  health.  Simpson,  however,  assured  me  that 
Stevenson  had  a  much  better  historical  equipment  than 
was  generally  supposed.  And  certainly  when  you  read 
works  like  "  Kidnapped  "  and  "  Catriona  "  you  can  see 
how  deftly  and  delightfully  he  could  weave  that  class  of 
matter  into  his  web  of  romance. 

You  may  be  interested  to  know  that,  although  I  only 
once  saw  John  Brown,  the  author  of  "  Rab  and  his 
Friends,"  one  of  our  acquaintances  used  to  tell  me  beauti- 
ful stories  about  him,  he  being  their  family  physician. 
At  certain  intervals  of  time  he  was  well  aware  that  a 


140  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

mental  affliction  was  again  recurring  and  he  put  himself 
into  voluntary  retirement,  emerging  from  it  with  as  sweet 
and  sunny  a  disposition  as  before. 

His  love  for  human  kind  was  only  equalled  by  his 
love  for  the  canine  kind.  She  told  me  that  a  friend, 
driving  with  him  in  his  carriage  along  Princes  Street,  in 
Edinburgh,  saw  his  attention  suddenly  attracted.  As  the 
carnage  moved  along,  his  eyes  followed  the  view,  and, 
lifting  the  back  flap  of  the  carriage,  he  peered  anxiously 
and  scrutinizingly  out  of  the  window. 

"Is  that  a  friend  you  know?"  said  his  companion 
to  him. 

"  No,"  said  he,  "  but  it  is  a  dog  I  don't  know !  " 

He  used  to  tell  with  a  certain  twinkling  humour  of  a 
certain  grocer  who  had  married  three  wives.  He  met 
him  in  Princes  Street.  L^nknowing  that  wife  No.  3  had 
also  died,  he  passed  him  the  time  of  day,  and  then,  "  And 
how's  Mrs.  Wilson,  sir?"  The  inquiry  no  more  discom- 
posed Mr.  Wilson  than  if  it  had  been  one  for  tea  and 
sugar  of  which  the  stock  had  run  low.  "  Oh  !  well,  Dr. 
Broon,  the  fact  is  "  —rubbing  his  hands — "  the  fact  is, 
Pm  just  oot  o'  wives  at  present  "/ 

I  should  tell  you,  Isabel,  that  if  you  want  truly  to 
understand  the  better  part  of  the  better  side  of  the  history 
of  Scotland,  you  will  find  one  way  and  another  the  deepest 
insight  into  at  least  a  century  of  it  in  the  "  Horae  Sub- 
sicivse."  Dr.  John  Brown  knew,  in  short,  that  the  moving 
life  of  Scotland  was  not  the  official  or  the  ornamental  life, 
but  was  a  life  quickened  by  an  active  and  practical  evan- 
gelicalism— often  allied,  if  you  will,  with  Dissent — an 
evangelicalism  which  fired  the  blood  as  well  as  steadied 
the  character,  and  he  knew  that  it  was  from  the  Scotland 


THE   WIZARDS  141 

thus  fired  and  quickened  and  steadied  that  there  went 
large  numbers  of  men  to  the  colonies  who  have  infused 
that  energy  and  principle  into  the  administration  of 
colonial  affairs  which  every  self-governing  colony  readily 
acknowledges  in  the  homage  which  it  pays  to  the  Scot. 

You  will  be  a  little  astonished  to  know  that  I  can 
carry  you  back  to  an  earlier  generation  still,  and  to  Sir 
Walter  Scott  himself. 

An  old  fellow-elder,  Mr.  Thomas  Learmont,  of  the 
Saint  James  Place  Church,  with  which  I  was  connected 
in  Edinburgh,  was  my  informant.  He  was  by  business  a 
bell-hanger;  and  as  an  apprentice-boy  he  was  engaged 
on  his  job  when  Sir  Walter  Scott  was  laying  out  at  Abbots- 
ford  those  expensive  alterations  and  additions  which,  alas  ! 
as  it  turned  out,  he  could  so  ill  afford. 

"Did  you  ever  see  him,  Mr.  Learmont?"  said  I. 

"  O  yes,"  he  said ;  "  he  used  to  come  in  and  out  among 
us,  hirpling  here  and  hirpling  there  upon  a  stick;  and  his 
blue  bonnet  had  a  bit  of  heather  in  it." 

I  got  another  side  of  the  picture  from  a  Sheriff  John- 
stone,  of  Selkirk,  whom  I  visited  after  he  was  90  years 
of  age.  I  was  keen  to  get  from  him  any  reminiscences 
of  Scott,  who  had  been  Sheriff  of  the  County. 

"  I  suppose,"  said  I,  "  Mr.  Johnstone,  that  Sheriff  Scott 
was  very  popular  ?  " 

"  No,  no,"  said  Johnstone,  "  you  are  wrong  there ;  he 
was  real  ill-likit." 

"  How  in  the  world  could  that  be  ?  "  said  I,  rather 
upset. 

"  Oh,"  he  said,  "  he  was  that  hard  upon  the  poachers  ! 
They  flung  clods  at  him  as  he  was  going  down  the  brae  : 
and  they  were  had  up  before  the  Lords  at  Edinburgh, 


142  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

and  some  of  them  got  twelve  months'  imprisonment  for 
the  crime  of  '  murmuring  judges  !  ' 

This  was  a  damper;  but  I  asked  about  the  earlier  days. 
'  Well,"  he  said,  "  the  fact  is  that  I  was  pretty  good 
at  the  fiddle,  and  I  was  gey  and  fond  of  the  servant  lassies. 
And  I  used  to  go  down  to  the  kitchen  at  Abbotsford  and 
play  them  a  tune.  And  then,"  he  added,  "  Sir  Walter, 
he  used  to  come  into  the  kitchen  and  pretend  to  be  very 
angry ;  but  we  knew  what  it  would  come  to." 

"What  was  that?"  said  I. 

"  Oh,"  he  said,  "  he  promised  us  forgiveness  if  I  would 
play  him  '  The  Flowers  o'  the  Forest ' — and  I  did  that 
with  a  good  will,  him  standing  in  the  middle  of  the  floor 
to  listen  to  me  !  " 

Think  of  it.  Picture  him;  standing  there;  leaning  on 
his  staff,  listening.  The  quaint  and  quavering  melody 
rises  and  falls ;  mystery  and  tragedy  and  a  waft  of  weep- 
ing, etched  on  the  silence  of  the  night.  Now  his  ear 
catches  afar  the  sound  of  a  wider,  wilder  music.  Long 
ages  ago  Ettrick  and  Yarrow  met  together,  and  he  hears 
the  rush  of  their  waters  poured  into  the  Tweed.  And 
with  the  refrain  of 

"The  Flowers  of  the  Forest  are  a*  wede  awa'  ' 

his  imagination  takes  wing,  from  stream  to  strath  and 
strath  to  stream,  over  the  centuries  and  over  the  ever- 
lasting hills,  till  it  reaches  Flodden  Field.  Be  assured 
that  the  melody  of  the  quaint  lament  stirred  his  heart 
no  less  than  it  has  stirred  the  hearts  of  generations 
of  his  race.  For,  more  vividly  than  any  of  the  sons  of 
men,  could  he  reclothe  the  past  in  all  the  glory  of  its 
chivalry. 


THE   WIZARDS  143 

I  know  not  why,  here  in  this  feverish  city,  on  which 
the  cool  of  the  evening  seems  to  descend  so  tardily,  I 
should  have  let  myself  go  on  this  old  theme.  For  I  am 
a  Burns  man,  and  Burns  was  the  Wizard  of  the  Future 
and  the  hopes  and  the  brotherhood  of  man.  But  Scott 
was  the  Wizard  of  the  Past,  and  did  he  not  ennoble  the 
human  story,  making  our  annals  and  inheritance  stately 
and  rich  and  precious? 

I  must  to  bed.  But  as  you  see,  my  mind  is  "  over  the 
hills  and  far  away."  And  I  am  thinking  of  a  sweet  some- 
body with  the  auburn  hair. 

Your  doting 

FATHER. 


LETTER    XXIII 
THE    MILLIONAIRE 

Craigmyle. 

September  i,  1919. 
MY  DEAR  ISABEL, 

Alas  !  This  week  has  brought  the  news  of  Mr.  Andrew 
Carnegie's  death. 

Carnegie  had  a  daring,  adventurous  spirit,  and  he  was 
able  to  punctuate  the  record  of  his  astounding  successes, 
in  business,  in  finance,  in  manufacture,  with  vivid  dramatic 
detail.  But  I  am  sure  I  am  one  of  very  many  of  those 
whom  he  gathered  about  him  who  heard  his  record  with  a 
rather  unintelligent  wonder.  I  once  frankly  told  him  so. 
He  was  giving  an  account  of  an  installation  of  two  new 
blast  furnaces,  their  enormous  output,  their  saving  in  cost, 
and  the  like.  I  said  to  him  : 

Ck  It  all  sounds  very  wonderful.  But  honestly  I  cannot 
grasp  it;  I  have  no  standard  by  which  to  measure  these 
things." 

'  What  do  you  mean  ?  "  said  he. 

"Well,"  I  replied,  "how,  for  instance,  do  these  two 
blast  furnaces  compare  with  the  Baird's  ?  " 

"  I  think,"  he  said,  "  that  the  output  of  these  two  new 
furnaces  alone  is  equal  to  the  output  of  all  the  furnaces 
in  Scotland?" 

In  short,  on  all  that  material  side  of  things,  we  had, 
as  I  say,  nothing  in  common. 

144 


THE    ROYAL   PALACE    OF   DUNFERMLINE. 
From  an  old  print. 


THE   MILLIONAIRE  145 

On  the  spiritual  side,  the  same,  alas  !  was  largely  true. 
Our  upbringing,  fellow-townsmen  though  we  were,  had 
been  different,  in  the  essentials.  The  old  rigidity  most 
righteously  he  despised.  But  the  noble  underlying  spirit, 
with  an  evolution  ever  to  higher  and  to  higher  planes,  and 
with  new  enrichments  of  scholarship — such  things  made 
him  impatient;  and  he  would — at  least  to  me,  for  I  de- 
clined positively  ever  to  lower  my  flag  to  him — he  would 
fling  out  at  you  savage  tenets  of  the  Old  Testament  as  if 
they  were  Religion  ! 

Yet  he  had  a  great  heart;  and  he  had  a  good  heart. 
Far  and  wide  he  voyaged — to  Confucius,  to  Zoroaster,  to 
the  world's  sages — seeking  the  truth  if  haply  he  might 
find  it.  And  I  do  believe  that,  after  all  those  voyagings, 
and  storms  of  argufying,  and  declamatory  monologue,  into 
which  an  uneasiness  of  mind  seemed  ever  to  draw  him, 
that  at  last  his  bark  landed  on  the  Christian  shore.  Surely 
it  could  not  be  otherwise  :  he  revered  conscience,  sought 
truth,  loved  and  helped  mankind,  and  was  honest.  Many 
a  time  he  was  wrathful  with  me,  because  I  would  not  yield. 
But  he  is  gone,  and  I  want  you  to  know  that  that  is  my 
testimony  about  him. 

Of  course  there  were  points  of  contact  between  us. 
The  most  real  of  these  were  in  our  dreams.  And  there 
we  came  together,  helping,  co-operating,  companioning 
each  other.  The  dream  of  my  life  was  to  have  the  edu- 
cational ladder  free  to  the  ability  of  Scotland  wherever 
real  ability  could  be  found,  down  to  the  humblest  and 
poorest  dwelling  in  the  land.  That  was  something  for 
Scotland.  And  he  helped  my  dream  to  come  true  by 
giving  ten  millions  of  dollars  for  free  University  education. 

The  dream  of  his  life  was  to  be  the  Laird  of  Pitten- 


146  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

crieff,  that  sweet  enclosure  of  the  ruins  of  monastery  and 
Royal  palace  from  which  as  a  boy  he  and  his  townsmen 
of  Dunfermline  had  been  always  debarred.  His  dream 
came  true ;  at  a  critical  moment  he  besought  my  help  and 
I  bought  for  him  the  picturesque  Glen ;  and  he  gifted  it  to 
the  lucky  old  town.  That  was  something  for  Dunferm- 
line. 

Who  says  there  is  no  romance  in  life? 

I  hope  that  I  was  numbered  among  his  friends  till  the 
last.  But  for  two  years  he  was  unable  to  re-visit  Skibo, 
and  I  never  visited  New  York.  During  that  period  I 
learned  with  deep  regret  of  his  failing  powers,  and  I  was 
sad,  but  not  surprised,  at  having  no  letter  from  him. 

He  was  in  some  ways  a  quite  distinct  type  of  the  re- 
markable man.  I  never  quite  understood  him.  We  fished 
together  :  but  even  on  that  we  differed.  He  had  a  delusion 
that  a  good  basket  of  trout  was  like  a  loss  of  capital  and 
made  a  loch  so  much  the  poorer — a  delusion  not  unnatural 
to  a  millionaire  and  a  non-sportsman. 

He  liked  literary  men  about  him  :  and  they  listened. 
Your  mother  and  I  once  lunched  with  him  at  the  Langham 
to  meet  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Clemens.  He  got  on  to  a  familiar 
tack  and  declaimed  against  people  getting  mixed  up  as 
directors  with  business  they  knew  nothing  about,  against 
speculation,  and  all  in  favour  of  a  man  sticking  whole- 
heartedly to  his  trade. 

At  that  luncheon  we  got  what  I  have  often  thought  is 
a  double  characteristic  of  Americans  :  I  mean  about  their 
telling  of  stories.  For  twenty  years  the  Century  Magazine 
was  the  only  magazine  that  entered  my  library,  just  as  for 
your  nursery  the  only  one  was  the  St.  Nicholas.  There 
could  hardly  be  a  higher  testimonial  to  the  United  States 


THE   MILLIONAIRE  147 

of  America  than  that.  For  a  short  written  story,  select  in 
matter,  and  in  treatment  vivid,  dramatic,  and  done  with, 
America  whips  the  world.  But  set  an  American  on  his 
legs,  allowing  him  to  pad  up  a  speech  with  a  story,  and 
it  is  only  the  special  restraint  of  a  forgiving  Providence 
that  prevents  every  auditor  making  for  the  door.  The 
detail,  the  elaboration  of  nothing  at  all,  the  visibility  of 
the  point  far  far  off  —  why,  in  a  country  of  revolver  practice, 
is  it  allowed  ? 

Clemens  was  a  good  illustration  of  both  sides  of  it. 
At  lunch  he  told  us  a  story  of  a  gloomy-faced  fellow- 
traveller  whom  he  found  to  be  reading  —  the  "  Innocents 
Abroad  "  !  But  before  he  got  to  the  climax  we  had  to 
be  worked  up  to  the  smiling  scenery  of  England,  the 
anxiety  of  mind  of  the  author,  the  personal  appearance 
of  the  reader,  and  course  pursued  course  in  the  lunch,  and 
then  all  was  over  —  all  but  the  story  :  it  was  still  running. 

But  now  see  the  other  side  of  it.  Some  time  after  that 
luncheon  appeared  "  Puddenhead  Wilson."  And  there, 
by  the  way  of  preface  to  one  of  the  chapters,  I  found  that 
Clemens  had  put  into  a  tabloid  all  the  doctrine  about  sense 
in  business  of  which  we  had  heard  so  much  from  Carnegie. 

It  runs  something  like  this  :  "  The  wise  man  sayeth  : 
'  Put  not  all  thine  eggs  into  one  basket.'  And  the  wiser 
man  sayeth  :  '  Put  all  thine  eggs  into  one  basket,  and 
watch  that  basket!  ' 


Now  a  truce  to  irrelevances.  "  I  have  a  tale  to  fell, 
oh!" 

Of  course  you  girls  knew  the  rich  man  pretty  well  both 
at  Cluny  and  at  Skibo.  Elsie's  singing  pleased  hin>  and 


148  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

so  did  your  violin-playing.  He  was  certainly  fond  of 
music,  had  heard  good  music  in  various  lands;  and  he 
was  genuinely  anxious  to  give  it  a  lift  as  a  "  sweetness 
and  light  "  instrument.  He  used  to  join  with  gusto,  keep- 
ing good  time  and  tune,  in  any  American  chorus  that  was 
hit  on  of  an  evening,  but  naturally  he  had  no  expert  know- 
ledge of  the  subject  and  he  depended  in  that,  as  in  so 
many  other  things,  upon  his  impulses  as  the  motive  for 
his  benefactions. 

Good  impulses  they  were,  however ;  they  leaned  to  the 
sentimental  side.  Great  and  noble  benefactions  they 
were,  and  of  some  of  them  an  ungrateful  world  was  not 
worthy.  Naturally,  having  had  so  much  to  do  with  it,  I 
think  that  his  ten  millions  of  dollars  for  the  Scotch  Uni- 
versity Trust  was  the  least  rash  and  the  most  fruitful  of 
them  all. 

Often  and  often  you  have  asked  me  to  put  down  the 
true  story  of  the  origin  of  that  great  gift.  Well,  here 
goes. 

In  other  letters  you  have  had  a  peep  at  what  romancers 
would  call  the  "  early  struggles."  Well,  they  were 
struggles,  and  they  made  a  deep  impression  on  my  mind. 
Once  I  made  a  singular  discovery.  In  my  second  year 
at  the  University,  I  happened,  one  week-end  at  home  in 
Dunfermline,  to  be  let  loose  among  old  books  and  papers. 
There  were  a  good  many  of  these  about.  The  notes  under 
my  father's  beautiful  hand  showed  signs  of  real  scholar- 
ship. He  had  had  his  bit  of  Latin,  too,  in  his  day,  but 
the  necessity  of  earning  a  living  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow 
had  shut  up  for  him  most  of  the  , upper  doors  of  life. 
Suddenly  I  came  upon  a  private  ledger  kept  by  my 
mother,  and  my  attention  was  arrested  by  a  long  column 


THE   MILLIONAIRE  149 

of  items  headed  by  some  title  like  "  Tom's  College."4 
There  were  the  entries,  advances  for  board  and  lodging, 
advances  for  books,  and  then  one  damning  entry  froze 
into  my  mind.  It  was  "  University  Class  Fees,"  say, 
somewhere  about  fifteen  guineas.  The  column  was  for  a 
five  months'  session  and  ran  over  £  100. 

She  had  never  whispered  a  word  to  me  about  keeping 
a  record;  she  had  never  denied  me  the  money  required 
— absolutely  trusting  me  to  disburse  it  honestly  and  legiti- 
mately— never  a  complaint  had  passed  her  lips,  not  even 
when  she  realized  that  after  working  at  the  law  for  three 
years  out  of  four  for  nothing,  I  was  in  for  another  four  or 
five  years  at  college  without  earning  a  shilling,  all  the 
oncost  and  the  upkeep  to  be  out  of  her  slender  bank 
account.  Faith  and  hope  and  love  were  her  portion,  and 
therewith,  and  without  any  blindness  to  the  struggle — 
therewith  she  was  content. 

All  the  entries  except  one  were  honourable;  but  the 
entry  of  "  Class  Fees  "  seemed  to  me,  knowing  all  that 
it  signified  to  her,  to  be  indefensibly  mean.  And  in  the 
renewing  of  my  vows — for  there  are  such  occasions  in  life, 
my  dear — I  vowed  that  that  item  should  go,  that  great 
corporations  like  Universities  should  no  longer  close  their 
doors  to  those  with  straitened  means,  should  no  longer 
work  their  institutions  and  give  their  endowments  making 
entrance  and  enjoyment  easy  for  the  rich  and  relatively 
harder  for  the  poor. 

Were  there  not,  you  ask,  bursaries,  and  could  not  the 
poor  win  these?  There,  my  dear,  was  another  hardship, 
making  the  inequality  cruel.  The  "  well-off  "  parent  had 
the  means  to  secure  for  his  sons  the  questionable  advan- 
tages of  cramming  or  the  solid  advantages  of  a  full 


150  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

Secondary  School  education.  Thus  and  thereby  even  the 
bulk  of  the  bursaries  went  past  the  poor.  The  world  and 
the  world's  law  seemed  on  every  side  against  him. 

I  felt  somehow  that  some  universal  bursary  was  re- 
quired for  everyone  who  had  the  knowledge  and  the  brains 
to  enable  him  to  matriculate.  That  was  the  idea;  a  uni- 
versal bursary;  won  by  matriculation;  won  as  a  right, 
Nothing  but  that  could  bring  strength  and  restore  equality 
into  the  system.  Otherwise  there  was  more  than  meanness 
in  if;  there  was  social  cruelty  and  national  loss. 

So  there  you  are;  the  whole  of  these  thoughts  swept 
dimly  through  my  mind  as  I  read  the  modest  yet  tragic 
ledger  sheet.  Of  none  of  them  have  I  seen  any  reason 
to  repent;  nay,  time  and  experience  have  deepened  and 
strengthened  my  conviction  of  their  truth,  and  I  have  seen 
them  shine  and  spread  until  they  have  become  the  common- 
places of  enlightened  statecraft. 

They  were  sizzling  in  my  mind  when  I  entered  Parlia- 
ment, and  then  one  vacation  I  was  fishing  on  Loch  Laggan 
when  suddenly  they  became  very  active  and  vivid.  That, 
so  to  speak,  would  be  Chapter  Two  of  the  University 
story.  What  I  have  written  to  you  this  morning  may  be 
called  Chapter  One — what  the  writers  of  stories  would 
head,  "  The  Birth  of  a  Notion." 

Quite  enough  at  present, 

From  your  very  own, 

S.  OF  D. 


LETTER    XXIV 

THE    LEARNED    GHILLIE 

Craigmyle. 

September  2,  1919. 
ISABEL  DEAR, 

In  the  summer  of  1896  Carnegie  was  occupying  Cluny 
Castle,  Inverness-shire.  He  had  parties  of  us  up  for  a 
week  at  a  time,  as  was  his  usual  habit,  during  his  Scotch 
autumns.  Morley,  Sir  Walter  Foster — afterwards  Lord 
Ilkestone,  and  I  think  also  Webster — afterwards  Lord 
Chief  Justice  Alverstone — were  among  the  set  during  my 
week. 

Foster  wanted  grouse  and  took  a  keeper  or  two; 
Webster  wanted  ptarmigan  on  the  high  hills,  and  took 
the  balance  of  the  hill  staff;  I  wanted  trout  from  Loch 
Laggan,  and  all  I  could  get  for  boatman — and  a  very 
good  boatman  he  was — was  a  young,  powerful,  thick-set 
lad,  whom  I  shall  call  James  Mac.  You  remember  him 
quite  well. 

I  have  always  made  a  point  of  the  comradeship  of 
Highland  boatmen  and  ghillies.  On  the  whole  and  on 
the  average,  they  are,  in  my  opinion,  the  most  intelligent 
men  of  the  British  community.  Their  aloofness  and 
"  take  your  measure  "  attitude  slips  off  them  when  they 
are  treated  as  real  men,  and  their  native  courtliness  and 
gallantry  shine  out. 

James  handled  the  boat  cleverly,  and  the  trout  were 


152  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

doing  pretty  well.     Suddenly  in  the  middle  of  a  drift  I 
said  to  the  youth  at  the  oars, 

'James,  are  you  going  to  be  a  ghillie — for  always?  " 

He  gave  me  no  answer  for  a  few  moments ;  there  was 
a  cloud  upon  him;  and  then  in  a  burst  of  confidence  he 
said  : 

"  Sir,  I'm  mad  to  be  a  doctor." 

1  Then  why  don't  you  be  a  doctor  ?  "  I  asked. 

"  It's  the  expense,"  he  answered ;  "  my  father  is  the 
village  shoemaker,  and  there  are  six  of  us." 

Then  I  tabled  my  card.  '  James,"  I  said,  "  would 
it  make  a  difference  if  there  were  no  college  fees  to  pay?  " 

He  seemed  to  catch  his  breath,  and  the  cloud  lifted, 
and  he  said  :  "  Oh,  sir,  if  that  was  the  case,  my  course 
would  be  cleared." 

'Which  college  would  you  go  to?"  said  I,  and  he 
answered  at  once — he  had  been  thinking  it  all  out,  dream- 
ing of  it,  in  the  silence  of  the  hills—  '  To  Glasgow." 

:t  Why  to  Glasgow?"  said  I.  "Is  not  Edinburgh  a 
greater  medical  school  ?  "  To  which  his  answer  came  at 
once,  "  The  living  in  Glasgow  is  cheaper." 

Here  was  a  genuine  case,  not  an  unusual  case — not 
so  by  hundreds — but  a  genuine  case,  and  it  had  dropped 
into  my  hand.  How  could  I  throw  it  away?  There  came 
into  my  mind  all  the  stock  objections,  and  especially  the 
familiar  sneer  that  the  Universities  would  be  degraded 
because  flooded  with  incompetent  men,  men  with  unwar- 
ranted ambition.  I  resolved  to  clear  this  point  up,  and  to 
"  mak'  siccar." 

'  James,"  said  I,  "  have  you  any  Latin?  " 

To  this  he  replied  :  "  I  have  just  finished  my  schooling 
at  Kingussie,  and  I  am  sorry  that  I  have  not  much  of 


THE   LEARNED   GHILLIE  153 

the  Roman  poets.  I  have  read  all  the  writings  of  Caesar, 
some  of  the  books  of  Livy,  and  some  " — here  my  memory 
fails  me;  it  was  either  Cicero  or  Tacitus.  He  had  read 
well  into  the  ^Eneid,  but  he  again  confessed  his  lack  of 
acquaintance  with  the  Latin  poets. 

"Any  Greek?"  I  asked. 

"  I  know  the  writings  of  Homer,"  he  replied ;  "  but 
this  last  session  we  have  been  working  on  Thucydides." 
Other  Greek  authors  he  mentioned,  including,  I  think, 
.'Eschylus.  I  learned  afterwards,  by  the  way,  from  the 
schoolmaster  of  Kingussie,  that  this  account  of  his  studies 
was  well  within  the  mark.  They  included  certain  books 
of  Plato's  Republic. 

"  Any  mathematics?  "  said  I.  To  which  he  answered, 
"  I  know  all  the  writings  '  (that  was  a  phrase  he  had) — 
"  all  the  writings  of  Euclid.  And  "  (after  speaking  of 
Algebra)  "  I  am  studying  mensuration." 

You  should  have  seen  the  sensation  at  the  Castle' 
dinner-table  that  evening.  I  broke  the  story  over  it  like 
a  cataract.  All  were  interested ;  some  were  up  in  arms  : 
Morley  was  severely  quizzical.  The  general  sense  was, 
at  first,  "  unwarranted  ambition,"  and  there  was,  of  course, 
a  demand  all  round  to  know  whether  a  ghillie  boy  had 
learning  sufficient  to  enable  him  to  enter  a  college  without 
bringing  down  its  average.  Then  I  poured  out  the  story 
of  the  lad's  scholarship,  Morley  and  Foster  following  me 
from  point  to  point  with  questions.  Then  the  head-shak- 
ing ceased,  and  we  all  went  off  to  bed.  Carnegie  himself 
had  not  said  as  much  as  usual.  He  was  puzzled,  and  he 
seemed  to  think  that  the  ground  was  unsure.  He  dis- 
cerned, I  think,  a  broad  and  a  big  undertaking  somewhere 
ahead. 


154  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

Next  morning  Sir  Walter  said  to  me,  "  Shaw,  you 
should  tell  that  story  to  the  House  of  Commons;  it  likes 
a  human  touch." 

And  so  I  did — on  the  next  discussion  of  the  Education 
estimates.  Within  forty-eight  hours  I  had  the  offer,  from 
a  friend,  of  ,£25  a  year  for  four  years'  fees  and  any 
extras.  Mac's  career  was  made.  He  came  to  Edinburgh, 
had  his  struggles,  did  well,  and  now  commands  a  capital 
practice,  and  leads  a  useful,  skilful,  helpful  life  in 
England. 

So  ends  Chapter  Two  of  the  Story,  But  there  was 
more  than  Mac  in  it.  The  wider  and  the  national  scheme 
was  to  follow.  The  plot  for  that  was  thickening. 

Now  for  a  motor  run,  dear,  a  breath  of  the  heather, 

and  a  sight  of  the  hills. 

Your  garrulous,  loving 

FATHER. 


LETTER    XXV 

A    DREAMER'S    DREAM 

Craigmyle. 

September  4,  1919. 
DEAREST, 

You  say,  I  know,  "  Yes,  yes,  Father,  but  what  really 
started  the  Free  University  education  affair?"  Well, 
that  is  the  very  thing  I  am  going  to  tell  you. 

It  was  suddenly  announced  to  us  in  Parliament  that 
in  consequence  of  a  big  sum  of  money  going  to  be 
given  for  education  to  England,  an  equivalent  or  rather 
proportional  grant — about  one-ninth,  but  still  a  large 
figure — was  coming  to  Scotland.  What  was  to  be  done 
with  it? 

"  Have  you  any  views,  Shaw?"  said  Bryce  to  me  in 
the  lobby  of  the  House  of  Commons. 

"  Let  us  have  free  education  in  the  Universities,"  I 
replied.  He  was  always  bustling;  and  in  haste  he  said 
to  me,  "  I  don't  hold  with  that,"  and  passed  on. 

Thereupon  I  sat  down  and  wrote  a  Memorandum  of 
the  situation  and  a  plea  for  the  idea,  had  the  paper  printed, 
and  sent  to  all  the  Scotch  members.  It  came  to  nothing, 
and  went  out  like  a  lighted  match  on  damp  ground.  That 
attempt  to  get  public  money  failed,  failed  completely.  An 
ideal?  Not  even  that.  It  was  treated  as  a  dreamer's 
dream. 

This,  of  course,  did  not  satisfy  me.     So  what  next? 


156  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

Had  I  not  been  teaching  you  all  your  lives  to  turn  every 
trouble  into  an  adventure?  What  next? 

"  We'll  hae  misfortunes  great  and  sma', 
But  aye  a  heart  aboon  them  a'." 

Should  I  try  a  wider  sweep  and  a  heavier  hammer  ?  The 
cause  was  worth  it. 

The  next  effort  was  an  article  in  the  Nineteenth 
Century,  entitled,  "  The  Educational  Peace  of  Scotland." 
It  appeared  in  January  of  the  year  1897,  and  all  that  I 
can  say  is  that  I  could  see  quite  well  that  in  the  open 
air  the  ground  was  not  so  damp.  The  historical  appeal 
—that  free  education  up  to  and  through  the  Universities 
would  be  the  consummation  of  the  Knox  tradition — went 
home,  here  and  there.  Another  Knox  ideal — that  every 
son  and  daughter  of  Scotland  should  be  so  equipped  as 
to  develop  every  talent,  every  natural  endowment,  and 
should  make  the  whole  a  national  asset  available  "  for 
the  comfort  of  the  Commonwealth  " — that  ideal,  being 
furbished  up,  began  to  shine  again. 

After  a  while — oh  !  it  seemed  so  long  ! — the  article 
was  read  by  at  least  one  man  in  America — the  very  man 
I  wished  to  get  at. 

In  May,  1901,  I  received  a  telegram  from  Mr. 
Carnegie,  asking  me  to  meet  him  in  Liverpool  on  the 
arrival  of  his  ship.  I  was  deep  in  engagements  and  wired 
regretting  that  I  could  not  go.  Some  more  wires  followed ; 
and  he  came  to  London  and  I  met  him  at  the  Langham. 
I  felt  that,  as  the  play-writers  would  say,  the  fateful  hour 
had  come. 

"  Shaw,"  said  he,  "  I  read  your  article  in  the  Nineteenth 
Century" 


A   DREAMER'S   DREAM  157 

"Yes?  "said  I. 

Then  he  added,  "  I  am  disposed  to  realize  your  idea." 

My  heart  went  bump.  I  replied  quietly  :  "  That  would 
be  something  for  Scotland." 

At  once  he  asked,  "  How  much  do  you  need?  "  And 
I  at  once  answered  :  "  A  million." 

"  How  do  you  know  that?  "  he  asked. 

t  You  see,"  I  said,  "  an  endowment  would  have  to 
yield  as  much  as  would  pay  the  fees  and  also  leave  room 
for  an  increase  in  the  students." 

"  How  much  are  the  fees?  "  he  inquired. 

"About  ,£50,000  a  year,"  said  I,  "or,  at  least,  they 
might  come  to  that." 

"  How  do  you  know  that?  "  he  asked — all  in  the  same 
"  down  on  the  nail  "  style. 

I  had  a  card  up  my  sleeve  for  him ;  for,  in  a  way  that 
I  cannot  possibly  explain,  I  had  been  preparing  for  some 
sudden  emergency.  "  I  know  it  from  this,"  said  I,  pulling 
from  my  pocket  a  little  White  Paper.  "  I  moved  for  a 
Parliamentary  Return  on  the  subject  a  little  while  ago,  and 
here  it  is." 

He  looked  it  over  carefully,  and  then  said,  "  How  are 
we  to  do  this  ?  Can  you  manage  ?  " 

Here  was  railroad  speed !  I  pulled  up.  "  Mr. 
Carnegie,"  said  I,  "  this  is  good  business,  but  it  is  big 
business,  too  big  to  entrust  to  me  or  to  one  man.  You 
must  get  the  whole  nation  on  your  side,  have  a  live  trust, 
put  men  on  it  of  both  parties — take  a  look  over  the  front 
benches  of  the  Commons  and  the  Lords,  and  we  may  get 
the  men — and  meantime  send  for  Ross;  we  need  skilled 
help  like  his." 

"  I  agree  to  that,"  said  he.     "  Ross  will  be  wired  for. 


158  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

He  will  be  here  to-morrow.  How  about  your  men  ?  Will 
they  agree  to  be  Trustees  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know,"  said  I ;  "  but  we  can  ask  them." 

"  How  can  you  do  that?  "  he  queried. 

"  I'll  take  a  cab,"  said  I. 

So  imagine  your  respected  parent  tumbling  there  and 
then  into  a  hansom  cab  at  the  Langham  door,  a  little 
dazed,  a  little  exhilarated,  strictly  sober,  but,  I  suppose, 
just  like  any  man  in  a  condition  when  dreams  are  coming 
true. 

I  went  first  to  Bannerman.  After  I  told  him  what  was 
afoot,  he  said,  "  Lord,  Tammas,  this  beats  a' !  That 
blessed  little  essay  of  yours  which  you  sent  round  to  us — 
well,  it  went  into  the  waste-paper  basket.  And  now  here 
is  the  whole  affair.  Yes,  of  course,  I'll  be  a  Trustee." 
Then  to  Lord  Reay;  he  was  very  cautious,  very  philoso- 
phical ;  and  I  could  see  (he  was,  of  course,  as  deep  as 
Bryce  in  the  University  set  and  looked  at  things  as  much 
as  he  from  the  University  angle)  that  he  shied  a  little  at 
the  free  entry  of  students.  I  said  to  him  that  the  Univer- 
sity purposes  proper  would  no  doubt  get  something  of  sub- 
stantial gain  by  and  by.  He  agreed  to  the  Trusteeship. 

Then  I  went  to  the  Scotch  Office,  as  I  had  told 
Carnegie  I  would ;  and  I  at  once  found  myself  up  against 
things.  You  could  hardly  on  your  oath  have  described 
the  atmosphere  as  enthusiastic  for  free  University  educa- 
tion. '  There  is  a  scheme  afoot,  Lord  Balfour,"  said  I, 
"  to  further  the  cause  of  free  University  Education  in 
Scotland,  and  as  Secretary  for  Scotland  I  should  like 
you  to  be  very  prominently  in  it."  Then  I  mentioned 
Carnegie.  He  said  little;  showed  no  enthusiasm.  Reti- 
cence was  perhaps  natural ;  all  was  strictly  official.  I  felt 


A   DREAMER'S   DREAM  159 

chilled.     Then   I  had  the   feeling  that  it  was  meant  I 
should  be  chilled.     So  I  took  fire. 

"  Look  here,  Lord  Balfour,"  said  I,  "  I  came  along 
here  because  you  and  your  position  should  be  very  respect- 
fully recognized,  and  you  could  help;  but  if  you  stand 
out,  this  affair  goes  on"  He  said  nothing. 

Then  I  added,  "  There  is  a  million  of  money  in  it !  " 

"What?  "he  said. 

"  Yes,"  said  I,  "  a  million  of  money." 

Then  we  talked.  I  again  impressed  upon  him  my 
view  that,  as  Secretary  of  Scotland,  he  should  be  asso- 
ciated with  a  movement  of  national  importance.  Then 
he  agreed,  saying  something  ominous  which  I  forget, 
about  consulting  the  Universities. 

It  was,  however,  evident  that  the  thing — the  formation 
of  the  Trust — was  now  booming.  The  struggle  ahead  I 
only  partly  saw,  but  anyhow,  Sir  Henry  was  wholly  with 
me,  and  there  was  comfort  there. 

I  went  back  to  Carnegie;  and  Ross  came  next  morn- 
ing. Dear  Dr.  Ross  !  he  is  now  over  eighty,  and  there  at 
this  moment  he  sits,  in  a  great  arm-chair  in  the  Craigmyle 
Library,  and  he  snoozes  away  so  comfortably.  But  he 
has  brought  north  his  store  of  the  original  documents,  and 
he  is  to  check  what  I  say  in  these  University  letters.  He 
is  the  only  other  witness  besides  myself  of  a  remarkable 
scene  which  I  may  by  and  by  describe  to  you,  and  he  has 
an  intellect  as  penetrating  and  an  outlook  on  life  as  serene 
as  ever.  Long  may  his  bow  abide  in  strength.* 

Your  rather  tired  (for  is  not  this  too  long  a  letter?) 
and  humbly  affectionate  FATHER 

*  March,  1921.     He  is  now,  by  the  favour  of  His  Majesty  and  to  the  hearty 
satisfaction  of  friends  and  public,  Sir  John  Ross. 


LETTER    XXVI 

THE    AUTHENTIC   LETTER 

Craigmyle. 

September  12,  1919. 
MY  DEAR  LASS, 

Was  it  you — or  which  of  the  other  rebels  was  it — that 
used  to  reiterate  to  your  mother  and  me  that  the  secret  of 
a  well-regulated  household  was — obedient  parents? 

Anyhow,  you  are  most  insistent  about  the  rest  of  this 
free  University  education  story.  After  all,  it  is  a  little  bit 
of  real  Scotch  history,  and  it  is  well  that  you  should  get 
it  at  first  hand  and  true. 

To  be  frank,  mighty  little  enthusiasm  did  I  find,  in 
the  ranks  of  those  who  would  have  been  powerful  to  help 
the  scheme  along,  for  franking  students  through  the  col- 
leges, for  realizing  the  national  ideal,  for  giving  to  every 
son  and  daughter  of  Scotland  this  chance  and  scope  of 
developing  intellectual  gifts  and  talent,  whenever  in  the 
body  of  the  people  it  could  be  found.     On  the  contrary, 
the  opposite  idea,  the  idea  of  the  elect — gathered  not 
from  the  well-to-do  in  an  intellectual  sense,  but  from  the 
well-to-do  in  a  material  sense,  an  elect  for  whom  Uni- 
versities and  other  national  institutions  should  be  a  pre- 
serve— that  idea  was  in  the  very  bones  of  men,   most 
superior  men  with  a  great  leverage  over  public  opinion 
through  the  Press  and  other  channels. 

Many  letters,  memoranda,  and  telegrams  were  flying 

1 60 


THE   AUTHENTIC   LETTER  161 

about;  and — for  I  was  up  to  the  neck  in  law  work — my 
recollection  is  not  quite  clear  as  to  the  order  of  the  next 
events.  However,  I  met  Carnegie  and  told  him  that  I 
myself  saw  that  the  Universities  would  be  none  the  worse 
of  strengthening,  especially  on  the  scientific  research  side. 
Lord  Balfour  of  Burleigh  was  very  properly  urging  this, 
and  I  thought  that  a  claim  in  that  sense  was  right.  The 
good  donor  agreed  to  add  another  half  million  to  his  gift 
and  to  dedicate  it  to  that  purpose.  That,  added  to 
"  Shaw's  million,"  as  he  always  called  it  to  Ross,  brought 
the  donation  up  to  seven  and  a  half  millions  of  dollars. 
The  first  drafts  of  the  Trust  Deed  were  made  up  for  that 
sum,  and  a  meeting  was  held  in  the  Scotch  Office,  where 
Carnegie,  as  prospective  donor,  addressed  his  prospective 
Trustees. 

He  confirmed  all  by  the  following  letter  : 

"  Langham  Hotel,  London. 

"May  18,   1901. 

"MY  LORDS  AND  GENTLEMEN, 

"  I  now  put  in  writing  the  substance  of  the  statement  which 
I  made  to  you  this  morning. 

"Upon  reading  an  article  by  my  friend  and  townsman,  Mr. 
Thomas  Shaw,  M.P.,  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  magazine  some 
time  ago,  I  was  deeply  interested  in  his  proposal  that  the  Uni- 
versities of  my  native  land  should  be  opened  free  to  the  capable 
youth  of  Scotland,  in  accordance  with  the  scheme  of  that  educa- 
tional benefactor  John  Knox. 

"I  took  an  early  opportunity  of  conferring  with,  my  friend 
upon  the  subject,  and  learned  from  him  that  about  ,£50,000  per 
annum  would  cover  all  the  fees  paid  by  students.  I  thereafter 
conferred  with  my  friends  Mr.  Morley  and  Professor  Bryce  upon 
the  subject,  and  finally  at  my  suggestion  Mr.  Shaw  kindly 
arranged  a  meeting  with  his  Lordship  the  Secretary  for  Scotland. 
The  result  of  that  highly  satisfactory  interview  is  the  meeting 


162  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

which  we  have  just  held,  you  having  all  been  conferred  with  in 
the  interval. 

"I  said  this  morning,  and  now  confirm,  that  it  would  give 
me  the  greatest  pleasure  to  provide  the  necessary  funds  for  the 
purpose  stated;  a  draft  embodying  the  details  you  are  already 
in  possession  of.  From  it  you  will  observe  that,  in  addition  to 
abolishing  fees,  I  have  provided  sufficient  funds  to  enable  the 
Universities  in  due  time  to  put  themselves  abreast  of  the  Ameri- 
can and  Continental  Universities  in  their  scientific  departments. 
The  securities  which  I  propose  to  transfer  to  you  as  Trustees 
are  seven  and  a  half  million  dollars  in  Bonds  of  the  United 
States  Steel  Corporation,  the  revenue  from  which  will  be 
.£78,000  per  annum.  The  estimated  charge  for  abolition  of 
fees  from  Scottish  students  being  ,£48,000,  this  would  leave  for 
the  scientific  and  other  modern  departments  mentioned,  say, 
.£30,000  per  annum  for  the  fifty  years  the  securities  run.  This 
expenditure  for  a  number  of  years  should  provide  the  necessary 
building  and  equipment  of  the  science  department. 

"Further  details  are  given  in  the  paper  herewith  submitted. 

"  I  desire  to  express  my  deep  appreciation  of  your  co-opera- 
tion in  agreeing  to  serve  as  Trustees.  I  have  not  the  shadow  of 
a  doubt  but  that  the  funds  committed  to  your  hands  will  be  so 
used  as  to  keep  our  native  land  in  the  foremost  rank  in  the 
education  of  the  people.  You  will,  I  am  sure,  readily  under- 
stand the  peculiar  charm  this  gift  has  for  me,  being  suggested 
by  one  Dumfarlan  bairn  and  made  possible  by  another. 

"Always  very  truly  yours, 

"ANDREW  CARNEGIE." 

There  was  the  whole  thing.  Purpose  :  '  That  the 
Universities  of  my  native  land  should  be  opened  free  to 
the  capable  youth  of  Scotland."  Money :  seven  and  a 
half  million  dollars.  Trustees  :  all  accepting ;  everything, 
in  short,  as  tight  as  a  drum. 


But  no !  no  !  no !  my  dear ;  little  did  I  know  of  the 
determined  prepossessions  I  was  up  against.    Before  many 


THE   AUTHENTIC   LETTER  163 

days  were  over  I  was  to  feel  their  force.  Bannerman, 
hearing  of  possible  retrogression,  laughed  aloud  at  it,  and 
wanted  to  know  what  right  we  had  to  control  the  donor 
and  to  look  a  gift  horse  in  the  mouth. 

But  the  situation  was  more  serious  than  that.  And 
its  danger  was  in  Carnegie  himself,  who  naturally  wanted 
to  be  associated  with  men  of  power,  and  who  always  had 
a  real  weakness  towards  the  aristocrat.  In  later  life,  poor 
man,  this  led  him  far  astray;  and  his  belaudings  of  the 
German  Emperor  went  so  far  that  their  brutal  falsification 
broke  his  heart. 

Towards  the  end  of  May  the  storm  broke.  On  the 
2oth,  when  the  ink  was  hardly  dry  on  Carnegie's  letter 
of  gift,  I  wrote  to  Dr.  Ross  this  letter  from  the  House 
of  Commons  Library.  You  will  see  that  my  feeling  over 
the  discovery  of  what  had  been  going  on  was  keen  enough, 
almost  to  the  sense  of  outrage. 

"I  have  just  learned,"  I  say,  "from  Sir  Henry  Campbell- 
Bannerman,  who  was  positively  shocked  and  angered,  that 
Bryce  has  had  a  letter  from  Lord  Reay  saying  that  Mr.  Carnegie 
has  modified  his  scheme,  and  that  there  is  to  be  no  general 
exemption  from  fees,  but  only  on  special  application  on  ground 
of  poverty  !  I  told  Sir  H.  that  the  thing  was  incredible.  .  .  . 
It  is  a  curious  development  of  the  classes  v.  the  masses  !  The 
Professor  lot,  as  Sir  Henry  says,  will  put  obstacles  in  the  way 
and  try  to  grab  for  their  own  University  purposes;  and  so  the 
old  sad  record  of  improving  a  merely  class  institution  would 
go  on ;  while  the  great  body  of  the  Scotch  people  would  be  left 
outside.  This  means  more,  in  misdirection  and  in  loss,  than 
I  can  describe." 

Well  did  I  know  that  all  over  Scotland  fathers  and 
mothers,  who  and  whose  families  were  an  honour  to  the 
land,  the  very  men,  women  and  children  whom  it  was  a 


164  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

pride  to  preserve  and  favour — they  would  never,  never 
plead  this  ground  of  poverty  :  they  would  rather  die  first. 
The  issue  was — a  dole  or  a  right.  This  kind  of  thing 
could  not  keep.  The  "  superior  "  Press  kept  harping  on 
the  same  old  string.  The  influences  gathered  and  the 
millionaire  was  being  engulfed.  I  felt  singularly  power- 
less and  alone. 

But  I  was,  as  I  have  now  discovered  after  an  interval 
of  eighteen  years,  not  alone.  One  journalist  who  knew 
his  Scotland  widely,  deeply,  and  at  the  first  hand 
of  a  lifetime,  foresaw  the  peril  and  went  to  Carnegie. 
It  was  Sir  William  Robertson  Nicoll.  But  even  his 
"  heart  sank  "  when  he  saw  the  company  the  rich  man  was 
keeping.  Here  is  his  account  of  the  interview — in  a  letter 
which  Ross  showed  to  me  only  a  week  ago.  I  purposely 
leave  the  name  of  the  visitor  blank;  but  you  may  take 
it  from  me  that  he  was  one  of  the  shrewdest  acquaintance 
with  forms  of  "  influence  "  which  I  have  ever  known. 

"June  5,  1901. 

"Bay  Tree  Lodge, 

"  Frognal. 
"DEAR  MR.  CARNEGIE, 

"I  am  constrained  to  write  a  line  to  thank  you  for  what  I 

saw  and  heard  to-day.     When  I  observed  you  with  my 

heart  sank.  He  is  a  good  man,  but  he  is  an  aristocrat  from 
the  beginning,  and  he  knows  nothing  of  the  poor.  I  am  nobody 
— nothing  but  a  journalist — but  I  have  known  what  it  is  to 
be  very  poor — and  very  proud — and  my  whole  heart  is  with 
the  poor  to  this  day.  If  you  will  observe  the  tender  considera- 
tion and  regard  for  the  poor  which  I  saw  in  you  to-day  in  the 
terms  of  your  settled  gift,  you  will  have  the  blessing  of  Scots- 
men to  the  end  of  time,  t  rejoiced  also  that  the  provision  for 
scientific  education  will  be  kept  in  your  own  strong  and  even 
hands  and  not  given  over  to  the  University  Courts  of  Scot- 


THE   AUTHENTIC  LETTER  165 

land — the  most  quarrelsome  and  impractical  and  the  least 
democratic  bodies  in  the  world.  I  am  not  worthy  to  come  under 
your  roof — but  my  whole  heart  goes  out  to  you.  May  God 
bless  you. 

"Yours  sincerely, 

"W.   RofiERTSON  NlCOLL. 

"  I  will  send  you  this  week's  number  of  the  British  Weekly, 
in  which  you  will  see  a  few  letters  out  of  many  received  which 
will  tell  you  how  the  true  Scotland  feels." 

Meantime  the  Trust  Deed,  in  terms  of  the  letter  of 
gift  of  May  18,  went  forward. 

"  If  the  deed  goes  through  in  its  present  form  as  I 
have  sent  it,"  I  wrote  to  Dr.  Ross  on  June  i  in  a  letter 
sending  him  detailed  suggestions  and  revisals,  "  I  ami 
ready  to  fight  for  it  through  thick  and  thin  and  to  put  a 
willing  share  of  my  life  into  the  Trust.  Mr.  Carnegie, 
assure  him,  need  have  no  fear  of  that.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  '  interests  '  knock  it  into  a  cocked  hat,  then — 
the  scene  is  changed." 

Would  you  believe  it,  dear,  it  turned  out  that  the 
chances  were  100  to  i  that  the  scene  was  to  be  changed, 
and  that  the  design  which  had  been  dear  to  me  from  my 
youth,  really  a  design  of  my  life,  was  to  be  frustrated — 
intrigued  to  death. 

Rather  a  shattering  business,  was  it  not,  for  your 
poor  old 

FATHER  ? 


LETTER    XXVII 

NIGHTMARE    AND    AWAKENING 

Craigmyle. 

September  13,  1919. 
MY  DEAREST  ISABEL, 

Shall  we  just  complete  the  University  gift  story? 
Well,  here  is  the  Fifth  Act.  Shall  it  be  in  the  Shake- 
spearean sense  a  tragedy — a  gloomy  triumph  of  adverse 
fate,  or — in  the  same  sense — a  comedy,  a  drama  with  a 
happy  ending? 

Suddenly  there  came  a  message  from  Mr.  Carnegie 
requesting  my  presence  at  Skibo.  I  wired  that  I  was  over- 
whelmingly occupied  and  could  not  go.  He  then  pro- 
posed an  intermediate  meeting-place — I  think  Inverness 
or  Aberdeen — but  I  had  again  to  cry  off.  Then,  through 
the  intervention  of  Dr.  Ross,  a  meeting  was  fixed.  He 
came  from  Skibo  to  Dunfermline,  and  I  sent  back  all  my 
briefs  for  the  day  and  went  over  to  the  old  town,  to  the 
house  of  my  old  master. 

Papers  were  laid  out  on  the  table.  Mr.  Carnegie  took 
the  head  :  I  sat  at  the  side.  Dr.  Ross  sat  apart  on  an 
arm-chair,  not  taking  part  in  the  discussion,  but  listening 
and  watching  keenly. 

The  start  was  abrupt  and  peremptory. 

"  Shaw,"  said  Carnegie,  "  you  have  led  me  into  a 
nice  fix.  I  feel  that  I  have  been  rather  affronted.  I  now 
find  that  your  scheme  is  no  good." 

166 


NIGHTMARE   AND   AWAKENING      167 

I  sat  still  for  a  moment,  recognizing  that  he  had  been 
got  at,  a»d  seeing  at  once  that  what  it  all  meant  was  that 
those  whom  I  will  for  short  call  "  the  inner  ring  "  were 
no  longer  satisfied  with  having  got  half  a  million  for  their 
design  :  they  would  have  none  of  my  scheme.  Having 
bagged  the  millionaire  they  were  going  to  bag  my  million 
too — leaving  free  education,  the  great  body  of  deserving, 
struggling  parents,  and  myself — all,  as  the  modern  phrase 
is — all  on  the  mat.  A  kind  of  tempest  swept  through  my 
mind.  I  tried  to  think  clear  :  there  was  much  to  be  lost 
or  much  to  be  won. 

"  I  am  sorry  to  hear  you  say  that,"  said  I,  "  or  think 
that  anything  I  have  ever  said  or  done  has  put  an  affront 
upon  you.  I  meant  to  make  your  name  beloved  for 
generations." 

'  The  thing  will  not  do,"  he  broke  in ;  "  the  help  is 
not  needed." 

"Who  told  you  that?"  I  challenged.  "I  know  the 
kind  that  told  you.  Tell  me  this,"  I  asked,  "  tell  me  this  : 
has  any  one  of  these  men  that  you  have  been  colloguing 
with,  has  any  one  of  them  gone  through  the  hards  for 
education?  Not  one  of  them.  I  have.  Who  are  they, 
to  know  whether  help  is  needed?  They  do  not  know.: 
they  have  not  had  the  experience.  I  have :  and  I 
know." 

He  was  unconvinced;  but  he  was  willing  to  parley. 
He  spoke  of  the  remission  of  fees  as  but  a  small  part  of 
the  total  oncost  for  the  session;  but — for  beneath  his 
resolute  and  dominating  nature  he  had  a  kindly  heart — 
he  winced  a  little  when  I  pictured  the  little,  and  some- 
times big,  gifts  being  sent  from  the  farms  and  the  crofts 
and  the  sheilings — the  cheese,  the  potatoes,  the  oatmeal, 


168  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

sent  or  taken  to  the  very  humble  city  lodging  where  the 
boy,  lonely  and  indomitable,  was  struggling  with  the  higher 
learning ;  how  by  this  means  the  cost  of  living  was  reduced 
to  a  minimum;  but  the  meeting  of  the  hard  cash  of  fees 
was  cruel — and  so  on. 

Although  I  was  sure  it  had  been  well  dinned  into  him, 
it  is  to  his  credit  that  he  did  not  personally  like — in  short, 
rather  revolted  against — either  the  poverty  test  or  the 
poverty  appeal.  And  you  should  know  also  that  by  this 
time  Lord  Elgin  had  pronounced  against  the  idea,  and 
Mr.  Arthur  Balfour,  at  a  meeting  which  the  three  of  us 
and  Ross  had  at  the  Scotch  Office  for  revising  the  deed 
(I  used  the  term,  I  remember,  of  turning  the  Trust 
into  "  a  sublimated  Poor's  Board ")  expressed  himself 
quite  peremptorily  in  the  same  sense.  But  this  is  a 
digression. 

Suddenly  Mr.  Carnegie  broke  in  :  "  There  is  a  better 
use  for  my  money,  and  I  have  resolved  on  it — to  equip 
the  Universities." 

The  battery  was  unmasked.  '  To  equip  the  Univer- 
sities," I  said ;  "  you  know  that  I  favour  that.  Quite  a 
good  object " ;  and  /  began  gathering  together  and  fold- 
ing up  my  papers! 

"  Shaw,"  he  said,  "  what  does  this  mean  ?  Does  it 
mean  that  you  are  not  to  be  a  trustee  ?  " 

'  That  is  exactly,"  said  I,  "  what  it  means.  Your 
scheme  is  good,  but  it  is  not  my  scheme ;  you  are  building 
it  in  the  air.  I  took  you  for  a  democrat  " — his  eyes  blazed, 
but  I  went  on—  "  and  here  you  have  been  consulting  with 
aristocrats  and  giving  away  endowments — right  enough — 
but  why  not  build  on  your  democracy,  get  the  people  of 
Scotland  on  your  side  by  giving  them  this  free  charter 


NIGHTMARE  AND   AWAKENING       169 

that  I  want  ?  Begin  with  them ;  trust  them ;  build  on  that. 
Otherwise  you  will  build  on  the  air ;  closer  and  closer  will 
these  corporations  grow."  Then  I  stopped,  thinking  I 
had  lost  all  by  going  too  far.  Carnegie  sat  in  a  sort  of 
maze. 

Then  in  the  pause,  and  to  his  everlasting  credit,  Ross 
struck  in,  putting  a  point  with  a  quiet  and  simple  force. 
'  Would  it  not  be  possible,  gentlemen,  to  realize  both 
your  schemes  ?  " 

Carnegie  looked  at  me;  and  I  said,  "  I  could  have  no 
objection  to  that :  I  favour  both." 

Then  he  too  began  gathering  up  papers.  '  You  to 
get  your  million,"  he  said. 

'  That  would  make  things  solid,"  I  replied. 

He  continued  :  "The  rest  half  a  million  for  equipment." 

"  I  don't  scrimp  that,"  said  I ;  "  not  at  all ;  the  colleges 
will  grow,  and  scientific  things  make  a  big  item  and 
growing." 

"  Let  it  be  so,"  he  said  to  the  dear  intervener.  He 
and  I  stood  up  and  shook  hands.  And  I  back  to  my  briefs. 
He  stayed  all  night  in  Dunfermline. 

What  happened  next  morning  at  the  railway  station 
was  told  to  me  by  Dr.  Ross.  In  stepping  into  his  com- 
partment Mr.  Carnegie  turned  and — "  Just  give  Shaw 
another  half-million,"  he  said ;  "  I  mean,  a  million  for 
him  and  a  million  for  the  others."  So  the  sum  of  the 
Trust  endowment  became  ten  millions  of  dollars. 

Never  was  a  Trust  better  officered.  Lord  Elgin  was 
unwearied  as  a  Chairman,  resolutely  loyal  to  the  deed, 
considerate  to  the  Universities,  but  preserving  our  inde- 
pendence ;  Sir  William  McCormick,  as  Secretary,  very  well 
able  indeed  to  hold  his  own  with  the  most  learned  bat- 


170  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

talions.     And  for  a  model  Treasurer  who  but  Dr.  Ross 

himself  ? 

***** 

Shall  I  now  write  the  epilogue?  On  the  final  settle- 
ment of  the  Deed,  several  of  us  came  out  of  the  Secretary 
of  Scotland's  room  together,  and  of  course  the  warm- 
hearted donor  was  being  congratulated.  He — little  man 
— took  Lord  Balfour — big  man — by  the  buttonhole,  and 
said  :  "  Reminds  me  of  the  Sunday  School  collection. 
Each  scholar  had  to  quote  an  appropriate  text.  Number 
One  toddles  forward,  puts  down  his  dime  with  '  Blessed 
is  he  that  considereth  the  poor.'  Number  Two,  with  '  The 
Lord  loveth  a  cheerful  giver.'  Then  comes  up  Number 
Three,  puts  his  dime  in,  and  solemnly  quotes  his  text — 
'  A  fool  and  his  money's  soon  parted !  ' 

So,  a  happy  ending. 

Your  fagged  out 

FATHER. 

P.S. — Let  me  add  to  this  letter  a  little  postscript 
(October  28)  as  to  what  happened  at  Alloa  the  other  day. 
I  stayed  the  week-end  at  the  Gean  House  and  Dr.  Ross 
motored  along  to  Louise's  from  Dunfermline  to  get  de- 
livery of  his  papers  and  to  hear  these  Carnegie  letters. 
After  hearing  them  intently,  he  modestly  disclaimed  my 
praise  of  himself,  but:  "On  the  merits?"  said  I.  To 
which  he  replied  :  "  Not  a  single  word  to  alter.  Not  a 

word  wrong." 

S.  OF  D. 


LETTER    XXVIII 

THE    SACRED   BATTLEFIELD 

Craigmyle. 

September  28,  1920. 

MY  DEAR  ISABEL, 

The  guests  have  gone,  and  these  are  quiet  days.  Last 
Sunday  a  scholarly  divine,  speaking  of  "  the  still  small 
voice,"  vouched  a  better  translation  to  be  :  "  in  the  sound 
of  a  great  stillness."  Just  as  we  use  the  expression  "  dark- 
ness made  visible,"  so,  it  seems,  there  is,  upon  high 
authority,  such  a  thing  as  "  silence  made  audible."  It 
is  true  :  I  hear  it :  in  this  afternoon  of  brown  and 
gold. 

For  some  days  I  have  been  in  "  the  sessions  of  sweet 
silent  thought,"  recalling  the  commanding  voice  and  mind 
and  presence  of  one  of  the  noblest  men  I  ever  knew — a 
great  ecclesiastic,  a  great  statesman,  a  great  Christian,  a 
great  man. 

Let  us  turn  aside  to  look  at  him  and  the  things  he 
loved.  I  want  you  to  see  him  and  them  as  with  my  own 
eyes.  So  for  a  little  you  and  I  will  speak  no  more  of 
Parliaments  or  of  affairs  of  State.  We  shall  visit  sacred 
ground — none  the  less  sacred  that  it  was  a  battlefield. 

Principal  Robert  Rainy  was  at  first  to  me  a  dweller 
apart.  But  as  I  was  drawn,  on  quite  a  humble  plane, 
more  and  more  into  the  privilege  of  co-operation  with  him, 
my  respect  for  him  took  on  a  warmer  and  a  warmer  colour. 

171 


172  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

This  in  the  days  of  his  advance  and  triumph.  In  those 
days  he  remained  serene,  steadfast,  with  a  quick  ascription 
of  all  to  the  Master  he  served,  and  himself  an  august 
lesson  in  true  humbleness  of  mind. 

But  in  the  days  of  check,  of  defeat,  of  apparent  over- 
throw and  ruin,  we  were  more  closely  in  conference.  Of 
a  Sunday  afternoon  then,  he  used  to  come  along,  his  mind 
loaded  with  care;  and  in  the  library  at  Abercromby  Place 
we  had  much  colloguing.  But  then  also  his  serenity  and 
steadfastness  shone  out  as  brightly  as  ever.  You  could 
not  but  discern  upon  him  the  lineaments  of  a  great  sorrow ; 
yet  there  was  the  same  ascription  of  all  to  a  Divine  lead- 
ing, and  again  his  humbleness  of  mind  lent  a  noble  eleva- 
tion to  his  unwavering  faith. 

When  I  think  of  these  things,  of  his  faculty  of  swift 
intellectual  penetration,  of  his  rectitude,  of  his  high 
courage ;  and,  alas  !  when  I  remember  how  for  years  he 
was  misinterpreted  and  loaded  with  obloquy,  I  feel,  on 
the  one  hand  proud,  and  on  the  other  hand  ashamed,  of 
my  country. 

I  have  described  to  you  in  a  previous  letter  my  up- 
bringing in  the  United  Presbyterian  Church.  There  can 
be  no  doubt  about  it :  that  robust,  growing,  fearless  body 
of  men  seemed,  on  the  one  hand,  to  be  veritable  old 
Covenanters,  but,  on  the  other,  to  hold  the  keys  of  the 
future.  Its  two  outstanding  features  were  these  :  its  belief 
in  the  spirituality  of  the  Church,  disentangled  from  State 
alliance,  and  independent  of  State  endowment;  and 
secondly,  in  the  advance  of  the  bounds  of  that  spiritual 
Kingdom  in  accordance  with  the  injunction  of  its  Head. 
This  body  seemed  thoroughly  well  able  to  go  on  its  own. 
What  need  had  it  of  Union? 


THE   SACRED   BATTLEFIELD          173 

Yet  is  not  the  question  selfish,  narrow,  improper  £  The 
only  point  in  such  cases  is  and  ought  to  be  :  What  would 
be  best  for  the  Kingdom?  It  is  a  spiritual  question  and 
must  receive  a  spiritual  answer  :  in  other  words,  Church 
Union  must  spring  from  spiritual  affinity  alone.  If  from 
anything  else,  the  Kingdom  will  suffer.  That  was  un- 
questionably the  view  of  Cairns  and  of  Rainy;  I  testify 
on  the  subject  at  first  hand. 

But  what  could  these  two  men,  and  the  Churches  they 
represented,  do  when  they  realized — every  year  more 
clearly — that  the  outstanding  features  which  I  have  just 
named  did  not  characterize  one  Church  alone,  but  charac- 
terized both,  and  that  the  lines  of  essential  belief  and 
duty  in  the  two  Communions  were  not  merely  parallel 
but  were  identical  ? 

Both,  of  course,  had  difficulties.  With  Cairns  it  was 
in  the  region  of  the  heart.  Take  a  notable  case  :  The 
annual  Synod — a  body  1,200  strong,  a  Minister  and  Elder 
from  each  congregation.  The  members  of  that  body  were 
direct  and  regular  participants  in  legislative  labour,  and 
to  them  every  year  came,  in  a  warm  tide,  the  refreshing 
of  a  c^.nmon  inspiration.  Was  that  to  go,  and  go  for  ever  ? 
Few  men  and  women  outside  of  that  Communion  know 
what  that  meant  to  those  inside  of  it — to  those  homes  from 
Shetland  to  the  Solway  in  which  the  sweet  and  sacred 
event  of  the  Edinburgh  visit  was  the  axle  of  the  year. 
These  seem  but  simple  annals  :  this  is  no  letter  to  the 
proud.  But  go  even  now  to  remote  country  manses  or 
farms,  far  away  as  Orkney  or  Cantyre,  and  you  will  see 
the  lips  of  old  men  quiver  as  they  talk  of  Synods  past 
and  gone.  Where  principle,  as  they  saw  it,  led,  there  they 
needs  must  follow.  But  they  gave  up  much. 


174  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

Rainy's  difficulties  were  more  menacing  :  less  human, 
more  historical,  more  metaphysical.  The  vast  majority  of 
the  Free  Church  saw  the  outstanding  features  as  I  have 
depicted  them.  And  they  felt  the  call  of  the  Spirit  as  of  a 
something  living,  moving,  marching  on.  But  a  minority 
— small,  steadfast  to  tradition,  and  rooted  in  the  past, 
were  not  so  minded.  And  that  awful  shadow  descended 
—the  connexion  of  the  State  with  the  Church — a  con- 
nexion in  or  about  which  difference,  disruption,  disunion, 
had  hovered  in  Scotland  for  over  two  hundred  years.  And 
when  that  shadow  fell  across  the  path,  the  minority, 
gathered  mostly  from  the  remote  Highlands,  stood  stock 
still. 

There  was  no  practical  question  of  their  joining  the 
Establishment — none  whatsoever.  The  point  of  difference 
was  a  pure  abstraction,  conjectural,  metaphysical.  Imagine 
an  Establishment  free  from  the  old  taint  which  made  it 
fall  from  grace  at  the  Disruption,  and  also  free  from  such 
modern  taints  as  "  human  hymns  "  :  imagine  all  that : 
imagine,  in  short,  an  Establishment  to  their  liking  :  then  to 
favour  that  supposititious  thing  was  to  favour  the  so-called 
principle  of  Establishment ! 

Here  was  a  something  on  which,  as  they  conceived, 
their  forebears  had  testified,  not  merely  according  to  their 
lights,  or  according  to  the  times,  but  as  truth  and  truth 
for  ever.  And  to  yield  on  this  point  seemed  to  them 
infidelity  to  truth. 

This  was  the  problem  with  which  the  Free  Church  was 
confronted  by  its  slender  but  rigid  minority.  It  was  the 
subject  of  learned  and  frequent  debate.  In  that  debate 
the  United  Presbyterians  had,  of  course,  no  concern  :  no 
stranger  could  intermeddle.  A  certain  wonder  took  posses- 


THE  SACRED   BATTLEFIELD          175 

sion  of  the  onlooker,  not  only  at  the  clash  of  argument 
upon  what  certain  Church  leaders  had  said,  or  unsaid,  or 
really  meant,  sixty  years  before,  but  also  at  the  more 
stupendous  proposition  that  this,  whatever  it  was,  could 
fetter  the  Christian  religion  among  men  who  believed  that 
Christ  alone  was  to  be  followed  and  He  alone  was  Master 
"  in  His  own  House." 

Travelling  once  by  train  with  Dr.  Rainy  to  some 
country  meeting  (we  had  a  good  many  of  these  journeys 
together  in  those  years),  I  ventured  to  allude  to  the  diffi- 
culties in  the  handling  of  great  masses  of  men  divided 
by  doubts  or  by  honest  differences  of  opinion. 

He  made  me  this  answer,  which  I  shall  never 
forget : 

'  There  are,  concerning  any  great  body  or  organiza- 
tion which  is  in  general  agreement  on  substantiate,  two 
things  required  of  anyone  who  would  serve  it.  One  is 
to  keep  the  mass  together,  avoiding,  so  far  as  may  be,  its 
disintegration  or  falling  asunder  :  but  yet  to  do  this  in 
such  a  way  as  always  to  help  the  mass  forward,  making 
its  centre  of  gravity  advance." 

To  this  task  he  devoted  himself  with  a  power  of  moral 
conviction  that  the  cause  of  Union  was  a  dutiful  homage 
to  Jesus  Christ.  That  was  the  touchstone  of  everything 
with  him.  I  remember  well  giving  a  dinner  in  my  Solicitor- 
General's  room  in  the  House  of  Commons  in  order  that 
great  Statesmen  should  meet  the  great  Churchmen.  Har- 
court,  Bannerman,  Morley  and  others  were  there,  and  I 
purposely  placed  Rainy  between  Morley  and  myself.  His 
massive  dignity  and  his  sweet  urbanity  impressed  all.  I 
watched  particularly  a  discussion  over  some  of  Newman's 
views  between  him  and  Morley.  Neither  the  one  nor  other 


176  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

of  these  men  was  of  the  cavilling  or  belittling  species,  but 
I  remember  well  with  what  a  stately  gravity  Rainy  summed 
up  all :  "  Mr.  Morley,  I  believe  that  John  Henry  Newman 
truly  loved,  truly  loved,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

And  in  that  spirit  his  patience  and  persuasiveness,  his 
labour  and  learning,  were  given  in  ungrudging  measure. 
The  Free  Church  majorities  grew  larger  and  larger :  more 
and  more  it  was  seen  that  the  differences  between  majority 
and  minority  were  as  plain  as  between  marching  and  mark- 
ing time. 

Meantime  the  United  Presbyterians — itself  the  fruit 
of  many  unions  of  smaller  bodies — had  remained  staunch. 
The  Free  Church  progress  was  now  such  that  the  coming 
transaction  seemed  to  be  abundantly  justified.  With  the 
dawn  of  the  new  century  the  Union  was  consummated, 
and  the  United  Free  Church  was  formed  in  October, 
1900. 

Veritably  the  blessing  seemed  to  be  poured  upon  it 
in  rich  abundance.  The  processions  from  the  Synod  Hall 
of  the  one  Church  and  the  Assembly  Hall  of  the  other  to 
the  Edinburgh  Waverley  Market  had  an  inevitable  sad- 
ness, but  the  first  vast  gathering  of  the  United  Church 
was  a  memorable  event.  All  Christendom  took  note  of 
it,  as  an  Evangelical  alliance  of  the  first  magnitude. 
Scholars,  divines,  philosophers,  also  marked  it.  For 
Cairns  and  Orr  were  in  the  one  Church,  and  the  other 
was  the  Church  of  fearless  thinkers  who  had  met  German 
theology  on  the  level  and  fought  it  foot  to  foot,  some 
like  Robertson  Smith  and  Bruce  passed  away,  but  others, 
like  Lindsay  and  Dods  and  Rainy  and  George  Adam 
Smith  and  Davidson  and  Denney,  pillars  of  religion  and 
scholarship  whom  every  centre  of  learning  at  home  or 


From  a  photograph  *>•  Marshall  H'ane  &•  Co. 

PRINCIPAL   RAINY. 


THE  SACRED   BATTLEFIELD          177 

abroad  treated  with  deference  and  respect.  Above  all, 
the  Union  was  marked  by  the  hearty  independence  and 
zeal  of  a  free  democracy.  This  last  a  literal  but  very 
remarkable  fact. 

Yes.  It  was  a  democracy  in  which  there  was  a 
real  equality.  No  distinction  in  power  between  laity 
and  clergy;  nor  among  the  laity  between  classes  or 
ranks. 

The  event  was  of  deep  interest  to  thoughtful  laymen 
of  all  classes  and  beliefs  outside.  Some,  like  Mr.  Balfour, 
Mr.  Haldane,  and  Sir  Henry  Campbell-Bannerman, 
openly  rejoiced  at  it.  Lord  Rosebery  did  better — he 
was  on  the  platform  of  its  first  General  Assembly.  The 
few  with  a  journalistic  twist  who  affected  to  scorn  it  only 
made  men  prize  it  the  more. 

Here  and  there  in  the  England  south  of  the  Trent 
you  would  note  references  to  uncouth  gait  or  attire;  and 
of  course  the  accent  of  many  came  in  for  a  slash.  It 
must  have  been  about  this,  I  think,  that  Bannerman 
once  remarked  to  me — he  had  a  habit  of  humorous 
anger  :— 

"  I  suppose  the  Jerusalem  Pharisees  would  have  their 
fashionable  joke  about  a  Galilean  accent." 

Moving  about  in  the  great  Assembly,  I  could  hear  the 
districts  of  Scotland  mingling  in  talk,  but  the  sense  of 
difference  in  dialect  disappeared  in  a  warm,  common 
purpose,  just  as  in  these  later  years  it  has  done  in  the  Great 
War,  in  Egypt  and  Palestine,  or  on  those  fields  of 
Flanders  and  of  France  which  have  so  often  been  watered 
by  Scottish  blood. 

Have  the  twenty  years  that  have  elapsed  since  that 
event  altered  the  current  of  reflection  or  belief?  Do  we 

M 


178  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

now  think  ourselves  superior  to  such  enthusiasms,  such 
manifestations  ?  If  the  current  be  different,  is  it  a  deeper 
or  a  shallower  current? 

The  Union  was  accomplished.  But  there  was  a  night 
of  doubt  and  sorrow  coming.  But  another  day  for  that : 
let  me  close  this  at  a  point  while  the  sun  was  still  shining. 

Your  ever  loving  Father, 

S.  OF  D. 


LETTER    XXIX 

STORM    AND    SUNSHINE 

Craigmyle. 

October  3,   1920. 
ISABEL  MY  CHILD, 

You  were  but  a  child  during  those  events,  but,  as  you 
have  told  me  yourself,  you  saw  the  two  impressive  pro- 
cessions which  went,  on  October  31,  1900,  to  the  great 
Waverley  Market,  and  there  formed,  amid  a  sort  of  solemn 
acclaim,  the  great  Union. 

In  that  clear  sky  there  was  a  cloud.  It  was  no  bigger 
than  a  man's  hand.  Within  six  weeks  the  sky  was 
darkened  and  the  storm  broke. 

On  December  16  a  Summons  was  issued  at  the  instance 
of  the  small  minority  of  the  Free  Church.  How  small 
it  was  you  shall  hear  in  a  moment.  But  that  was  no  matter ; 
the  argument,  and  case,  and  decision,  would  have  been 
the  same  although  the  minority  had  consisted  of  one  single 
man. 

What  were  these  "  pursuers  "  submitting  ?  They  dared 
not  challenge  the  Union  as  a  spiritual  association,  or  de- 
mand its  rescission.  That  would  have  been — 

"To  force  our  consciences  that  Christ  set  free," 

a  thing  impossible  in  Scotland,  and  not  attempted  since 
the  black  epoch  of  the  later  Stuarts. 

But  they  could  challenge  the  right  to  property.  The 
Free  Church  had  foolishly  favoured  accumulation  under 

179 


i8o 

the  names  of  capital  or  central  funds.  Curious  it  is  how 
such  Churches  run  to  that.  Loyal  and  enthusiastic  com- 
mercial men  in  them  favour  that.  But  it  is  only  safe  within 
very  strait  limits.  For  it  tends  to  remove  liberality  from 
the  category  of  steady-going  virtues  and  turn  it  into  a 
deathbed  affair.  And  from  it  spring  dangers — danger 
of  ease,  danger  of  inward  self-satisfaction,  danger  of  out- 
ward attack.  A  Church's  true  reserves  are  not  in  such 
investments,  but  in  "  the  unfathomable  riches." 

Of  all  those  reserves  and  property  the  minority  could 
claim  the  whole.  This  they  did ;  roundly  demanding  that 
the  Free  Church  which  merged  itself  into  the  Union 
should  be  stripped  of  its  "  whole  lands,  properties,  sums 
of  money  and  others  which  stood  vested  in  it "  on 
October  30,  and  that  when  the  next  day  it  became  part 
of  a  United  Free  Church  it  did  so  beggared  of  all  its 
possessions.  Its  churches,  manses,  colleges,  mission 
stations,  schools,  buildings,  in  this  and  many  lands,  its 
capital  funds,  down  to  the  last  sixpence — everything  to  be 
swept  away  by  legal  capture  :  nothing  left  to  it  except 
its  soul. 

For  there  was,  according  to  these  plaintiffs,  no  longer 
any  Free  Church  except  themselves,  and  those  who 
"  adhered  "  to  them.  They  alone  had  been  faithful ;  this 
they  truly  believed.  All  the  others  had  been  faithless ;  this 
also  they  believed.  "  We  are  the  people,  and  wisdom  will 
die  with  us  " ;  all  else  was  a  remorseless  logic.  How  to 
manage  this?  Search  out  the  old  beliefs  or  protestations 
of  those  who  were  leaders  of  the  Disruption  movement  of 
1843  ;  piece  these  things — two  generations  old — piece  them 
together,  and  then  treat  the  result  as  a  trust  under  the 
theory  of  "  fundamental  principles."  Get  a  Court  of  Law 


STORM   AND   SUNSHINE  181 

to  uphold  that;  and  all  the  rest  follows;  the  law  of  the 
dead  hand  rules  all;  the  law  of  the  living  spirit — that 
very  essence  of  a  Church  of  a  Living  Christ — signifies 
nothing. 

You  think  that  this  was  ridiculous,  do  you?  Not  at 
all.  It  was  the  law.  You  think  it  was  ruthless,  do  you? 
Pray,  what  had  the  law  to  do  with  that  ? 

The  litigation  lasted  four  years.  The  famous  judg- 
ment of  the  House  of  Lords  was  pronounced  on  August  i, 
1904.  The  prolix  records  of  the  case  are  available  :  far 
be  it  from  me  to  attempt  their  epitome.  The  substance 
of  the  matter  was  what  I  have  told  you. 

The  Summons  failed  in  both  of  the  Houses  of  the 
Scotch  Court  of  Session.  The  Scotch  judges  were 
unanimous.  In  the  House  of  Lords  the  judges  stood 
3  against  3,  it  being  an  open  secret  that  Lord  Shand's 
decision,  which  was  actually  in  writing,  was  for  dismiss- 
ing the  appeal.  But  alas !  he  died  ere  judgment  was 
pronounced.  New  judges  were  called  in,  and  by  a  majority 
— Lords  Macnaghten  and  Lindley  dissenting — the  Scotch 
decisions  were  reversed.  Then  the  havoc  began. 

The  first  thing  to  be  done  was  one  in  which  I  took  a 
deep  interest.  As  representing  the  United  Presbyterians 
I  had  been  charged  with  one  of  the  leading  Union  resolu- 
tions in  1900,  and  along  with  Principal  Rainy  I  had 
visited  various  centres  promoting  the  cause.  The  question 
was — what  would  that  fine  brave  United  Presbyterian 
Church  now  do?  Here  was  a  thing  in  which  she  had 
legally  no  concern.  Her  principles  had  not  been  in  issue  : 
her  property  had  not  been  at  stake.  All  her  material  equip- 
ments, capital  funds,  buildings,  churches,  manses,  stations, 
remained  to  her.  What  was  her  duty?  Should  she  dis- 


i82  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

entangle  herself  from  this  quarrel  which  was  no  concern 
of  hers,  and  go  on  with  her  old  work  like  her  old  self? 
What  was  her  duty? 

She  chose  the  better  part.  I  shall  never  forget  a  great 
meeting  of  office-bearers  in  Edinburgh  at  which  the  de- 
cision was  made  that  the  Union  should  stand.  The  two 
sides  of  the  question  were  fairly  pointed  out.  But  the 
advantages  of  "  as  you  were  "  seemed  as  naught  to  these 
Christian  men.  Nothing  else  than  spiritual  affinity  and 
a  sense  of  what  was  best  for  the  Kingdom — nothing  else 
had  made  the  Union  :  nothing  else  should  undo  it.  "  Seest 
thou  thy  brother  in  need  ?  "  asked  one  of  the  United 
Presbyterian  speakers,  and  the  response  was  from  the 
heart.  Our  possessions  were  theirs  :  the  lot  and  heritage 
were  common.  What  God  had  joined  let  no  man  put 
asunder. 

So  that  shadow  fled. 

Then  there  came  a  period  of  anxiety  and  unrest  so  long 
drawn  out  as  to  be  a  misery.  The  judgment  of  the  House 
of  Lords  had  to  be  applied.  So  application  after  applica- 
tion was  made  to  the  Courts,  and  the  energy  of  lawyers 
was  at  the  service  of  even  the  minutest  minority  in  any 
congregation  throughout  the  country,  to  secure  property 
and  funds  and  to  dispossess  the  congregation  as  a  whole 
from  all.  It  mattered  not  that  buildings  had  been  erected 
by  donors  still  living  who  protested  against  the  diversion 
of  their  own  sacred  gifts  away  from  the  Church  to  which 
they  clung.  These  are  but  single  instances  of  extra- 
ordinary consequences,  logical,  ruthless,  hard  to  bear. 

The  repetitions  of  such  legal  proceedings  throughout 
the  country  began  to  sow  the  seeds  of  what  might  have  been 
serious  trouble.  The  law  courts  were  kept  busy.  Was 


STORM   AND   SUNSHINE  183 

Scotland  again  to  be  the  scene,  as  so  often  it  had  been 
in  her  history,  of  open  and  violent  defiance  of  the  intrusions 
of  the  law? 

About  that  time  I  received  the  following  letter  : — 

"  8,  Rosebery  Crescent, 
"  Edinburgh. 

"  Wednesday — 22. 
"  DEAR  MR.  SHAW, 

"  There  is  a  natural  and  growing  indignation  about  the 
growing  list  of  interdicts,  and  Presbyterians  are  talking  of  press- 
ing for  a  suspensory  bill  and  calling  on  the  M.P.s  for  their 
district  to  take  the  question  up. 

"I  should  not  at  all  deprecate  speaking  out  and  claiming 
deliverance.  I  am  only  afraid  of  Parliamentary  action  taking 
a  shape  that  may  lead  to  Government  rebuff — I  don't  think 
that  would  improve  our  position. 

"  It  is  also  to  be  considered  that  these  interdicts — wicked 
as  their  effects  are — constitute  valuable  object  lessons.  They 
show  what  the  House  of  Lords  judgment  really  means. 

"  What  I  usually  say  to  people  is,  that  they  should  not 
contemplate  any  Parliamentary  action  without  consulting 
Asquith  and  yourself. 

*  *  *  *  # 

"  Yours  very  truly, 

"  ROBERT  RAINY." 

This  letter  contained  the  substance  of  many  commun- 
ings.  Naturally,  Dr.  Rainy  would  have  done  much  to 
avoid  Parliamentary  intervention,  but  we  agreed  that  it 
had  to  come,  not  to  settle  Divine  things,  but  to  undo  this 
human  intervention.  I  shared  his  plans  as  to  the  shape 
it  would  take. 

I  try  to  keep  myself  out  of  all  this  story.  But,  my 
dear,  it  is  impossible.  You  will  see  how.  After  much 
consideration  I  telegraphed  to  Belmont,  and  Sir  Henry 
Campbell-Bannerman  asked  me  to  come  on.  I  laid  before 


184  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

him  the  best  I  could  make  of  it,  told  him  that  it  would 
require  far  more  than  my  brains  and  energy  to  induce  or 
force  a  Government  to  accept  it ;  there  was  my  plan  :  what 
did  he  think?  Would  he  and  those  he  led  support  it? 

He  was  at  first  non-committal.  He  joked  :  called  me 
"  owdacious  "  and  all  the  rest  of  it,  groping  his  way, 
putting  points.  We  had  two  or  three  hours  of  it.  Although 
still  determined,  I  was  feeling  discouraged  and  depressed  : 
but  just  as  he  was  shaking  hands  he  cheered  me  up  by 
saying  : 

'  Well,  Thomas,  it's  worth  a  trial."  He  was  heart 
and  soul  with  me  on  the  gross  wrongs  of  the  position ;  but 
as  to  the  remedy,  he  was  doubtful  and  uneasy.  Yet  I 
could  see  that  he  had  no  alternative  plan,  and  what  he  had 
said  was  quite  warrant  enough  for  me. 

I  spoke  in  Galashiels  on  October  17,  setting  out  the 
church  difficulty  and  suggesting  the  way  out.  The  news- 
papers were  most  generous  in  their  space,  and  the  address, 
reprinted,  had  a  wide  vogue.  Letters  poured  in  from  all 
quarters,  quite  irrespective  of  party :  and  it  was  clear  that 
the  clouds  were  breaking. 

I  should  mention  that  from  the  moment  the  judgment 
was  pronounced  it  was  plain  beyond  all  doubting  that  the 
slender  but  successful  minority — thereafter,  of  course,  to 
be  known  as  the  legal  Free  Church — was  saddled  under 
Trust  law  with  a  sacred  responsibility  so  vast  that  they 
were  quite  unable  efficiently  to  discharge  it.  In  these 
circumstances,  an  arrangement  between  the  parties  was 
attempted.  It  failed.  The  legal  Free  Church  held  that 
the  laws  of  God  as  well  as  man  put  them  in  the  position 
they  occupied,  and  that  to  yield  an  inch  was  a  sacrifice  of 
principle. 


STORM   AND  SUNSHINE  185 

So  the  conference  ended  in  nothing.  The  Free 
Church  would  arbitrate  nothing.  They  would  not  even 
agree  to  yield  what  they  could  not  use ;  and  their  inability 
to  work  the  mass  of  the  churches  they  claimed  was  con- 
fessed in  their  proposal  that  the  present  occupiers  should 
remain  as  caretakers.  But  even  that  was  not  to  be 
allowed,  unless  at  the  same  time  those  caretakers  should 
also  become  spiritual  bondsmen. 

All  over  Scotland  that  was  to  be  the  spectacle — that 
Christian  people  were  to  yield  the  churches  and  manses 
which  they  in  thousands  had  themselves  built,  to  hold 
those  properties  as  tenants-at-will  of  those  who  did  not 
build  them — and  this  on  the  understanding  that  they  must 
only  worship  God  on  conditions  set  up  by  those  who  had 
bereft  them  of  their  possessions  ! 

The  facts  were  startling  enough.  Of  the  1,104  con- 
gregations of  the  Free  Church,  how  many  stood  out  of 
the  Union?  Only  twenty-six.  What,  then,  if  the  1,100 
churches,  and  all  the  colleges,  manses,  stations,  halls,  home 
and  foreign,  were  seized?  Who  was  to  undertake  the 
work  of  the  Master,  yearly,  daily,  hourly,  of  which  these 
resources  were  but  the  material  shell  and  frame  ?  Empty 
they  must  stand  until  living  forces  came  into  being  to 
utilize  them  according  to  Disruption  principles,  and  bound 
especially  to  the  "  principle  of  Establishment  "  as  declared 
fundamental  and  perpetual  by  the  House  of  Lords.  And 
to  stand  empty  was  not  Trust  but  breach  of  Trust.  How 
could  twenty-six  men  fill  1,100  pulpits? 

In  mission  work  the  old  Free  Church  was  pre-eminent 
throughout  Christendom.  Her  noble  band  of  missionaries 
numbered  one  hundred,  and  each  and  all  they  stood  by 
the  Union  and  freedom.  Were  these  mission  stations, 


186  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

colleges,  schools,  to  be  vacated  and  go  to  ruin,  waiting  the 
time  when  a  trained  ministry  came  along  who  would  be 
sound  on  the  principle  of  Establishment?  How  grotesque 
it  all  was ! 

If  so  as  to  men,  what  as  to  funds?  The  foundation 
of  Free  Church  pulpit  support  was  what  was  known  as 
its  Sustentation  Fund,  kept  alive  by  voluntary  annual 
offerings.  In  the  year  preceding  the  Union  these  offer- 
ings amounted  to  no  less  than  ,£170,000.  Of  this  the 
"  legal "  Free  Church  contributed  how  much  ?  Only 
,£2,900.  No  shame  that  it  was  small;  but  the  point  was 
how  out  of  this  slender  amount  was  the  vast  work  of  the 
law-declared  Trust  to  be  fulfilled  by  its  law-declared 
Trustees  ?  It  was  manifest  that  the  House  of  Lords  judg- 
ment was  unworkable,  impossible,  and  I  am  not  going  to 
say  any  more  about  it.  Upon  that  subject  I  delivered  my 
soul. 

Without  doubt  Scotland,  which  far  and  wide  still  cared 
for  these  things,  was  put  into  a  difficult  position.  On  the 
one  hand,  the  law;  on  the  other,  the  clamant  facts;  the 
chances  of  social  disorder;  above  all,  loss,  disorder,  mis- 
chance and  mischief  to  the  work  and  cause  of  Jesus  Christ. 

After  all,  it  was  a  case  for-  putting  very  plain  facts 
in  a  very  plain  way;  and  it  was  their  urgency  which  com- 
pelled the  call  which  I  ventured  to  make — a  call  for  legis- 
lative interference  to  undo  the  disaster  of  judicial  inter- 
ference. 

No  trust  can  be  allowed  to  lapse  into  a  state  of  non- 
administration.  Let  there  be  loyalty  to  the  law  on  the 
one  hand,  but  also  unflinching  loyalty  to  the  work  of  Christ 
on  the  other.  That  is  the  work  for  which  the  Church 
exists,  and,  if  there  is  failure  there,  the  law  will  step  in. 


STORM   AND   SUNSHINE  187 

I  put  the  simple  question  thus  :  Should  the  successful 
litigants  take  more  than  they  can  successfully  administer 
either  now  or  in  the  reasonably  near  future?  Whatever 
they  cannot  so  administer,  the  law  would  declare  should 
go  to  the  nearest  approximate  object;  and  therefore,  in 
nine  cases  out  of  ten,  you  would  come  back  after  years 
of  heart-burning,  anxiety,  dispeace,  loss,  evictions  and 
scandal,  exactly  to  where  you  had  started  from — namely, 
that  the  present  possessors,  carrying  on  the  nearest  ap- 
proximation to  the  objects  of  the  trust,  should  be,  as  they 
should  have  been  from  the  beginning,  allowed  to  remain 
where  they  were. 

What  I  pled  for  was  drastic  enough;  but  I  felt  sure 
that  nothing  less  would  bring  peace  in  Church  or  State. 
It  was  this  :  to  set  the  judgment  of  the  House  of  Lords 
on  one  side;  to  put  the  existing  havoc  under  immediate 
arrest  by  staying  instantly  all  legal  proceedings,  and  by 
Parliament  itself  lifting  out  of  the  hands  of  the  parties  the 
whole  funds  and  property,  amounting  in  value  to  millions 
of  pounds  sterling.  Who  to  take  it?  A  strong  Parlia- 
mentary Commission.  What  to  do  with  it?  Why,  my 
dear,  to  give  it  all  back  again;  to  distribute  it  among  the 
parties;  to  take  stock,  not  only  of  the  judgment,  but  also 
of  the  manifest  actualities  of  the  case,  and,  above  all,  of 
the  overriding  obligation  that  the  living  work  of  the 
Evangel  should  not  fail,  that  the  true  trust  should  not  be 
broken,  that  wherever  at  home  or  abroad  the  little  lamp 
had  shone  it  should  still  hold  on  to  burn. 

Was  this  wild  revolutionary  stuff?  Was  it  disrespect- 
ful to  the  House  of  Lords?  Was  it  disloyal  to  the  law? 
Or  was  it  just  plain  honesty  and  common  sense? 

Well,  it  was  in  this  last  sense  that  the  public  and 


188  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

Parliament  and  the  Government  took  it  up.  I  favoured 
— arbitration  having  been  refused — the  appointment  of  a 
Parliamentary  Commission,  armed  with  arbitrative  and 
executive  powers,  charged  with  a  settlement  of  all  existing 
or  prospective  disputes  between  the  two  Churches;  and  I 
asked  Parliament  to  set  it  up  authoritatively  as  a  Com- 
mission of  Equity. 

To  those  who  hankered  for  precedent  I  cited  Lord 
Westbury — for  the  lawyers,  and — for  the  politicians — Sir 
Robert  Peel. 

The  Government  served  the  occasion  as  became  en- 
lightened men.  And  the  Crown  lawyers — Mr.  Graham 
Murray  and  Mr.  Scott  Dickson — showed  the  grasp  and 
grit  which  became  their  high  office, — in  this  astonishing 
nobody  who  knew  their  worth  and  quality. 

So  all  went  well.  The  Elgin  Commission  was  set  up, 
worked  with,  shall  we  say,  deliberation,  giving,  by  the  way, 
to  the  successful  litigants  measure  full  and  to  spare.  Peace 
settled  again  over  great  spaces  of  country  and  great  spheres 
of  religious  effort. 


Here  is  a  curious  thing.  Namely  this  :  that  of  all  that 
happened  about  the  Parliamentary  Bill  my  memory  is 
a  complete  blank.  I  must  have  been  deep  in  it ;  but  I  was 
nearly  wrought  to  death  with  legal  work,  travelling  in  that 
Session  alone,  by  rail  and  mostly  by  night,  a  distance  equal 
to  the  circumference  of  the  earth.  And  this  Church-recti- 
fication business  was  high-strung  work.  I  said  plainly  in 
Parliament  on  the  Bill  that  the  country  which  had  not  in 
the  past  feared  the  head  that  wore  a  crown  was  not  in  the 
least  likely  to  quail  before  the  head  that  wore  a  wig  !  And 


STORM   AND  SUNSHINE  189 

as  to  these  cruel  interdicts  I  set  the  House  astir  by  likening 
the  position  to  a  penny-in-the-slot  machine,  where  you  had 
only  to  drop  in  the  House  of  Lords  judgment  and  to  pull 
out  a  Church.  Morley  affected  to  be  scandalized;  but 
when  I  rapped  back  at  him  : 

"  Our  indiscretions  sometimes  serve  us  well 
When  our  deep  plots  do  pall," 

he  was  placated. 

All  the  rest  has  completely  passed  from  my  mind. 
Once  before  the  actual  struggle  I  had  said  wonderingly 
to  Principal  Rainy  that  there  might  be  a  danger  of  such 
a  colossal  calamity  as  had  occurred  undermining  good 
men's  faith.  He  severely  reproved  me,  reminding  me  of 
men's  short-sightedness,  of  the  need  to  be  steadfast  in 
adversity,  accepting  these  buffetings  as  became  humble 
believers  in  a  supreme  Wisdom.  So  we  were  drawn  still 
more  closely  together. 

The  other  day  I  fished  out  this  letter  from  him,  which 
I  am  venturing  to  send  to  you.  I  should  rather  tell  the 
story  myself,  but  I  cannot  remember  it,  and  so  you  will 
excuse  me  falling  back  on  the  record  of  the  saintly  but 
too  indulgent  friend. 

"3,Tantallon  Terrace, 
"North  Berwick. 

"August  10,  1905. 
"DEAR  MR.  SHAW, 

"In  reporting  at  the  Commission  and  speaking  of  members 
of  Parliament,  I  named  four  who  were  in  frequent  consultation 
with  us.  I  named  you  last  that  I  might  add  some  sentences  as 
to  our  special  obligations  to  you.  I  referred  to  your  being  a 
member  of  our  advisory  Committee,  having  the  whole  details  at 
command — your  Parliamentary  position  and  experience — the 
universal  impression  of  the  judgment,  good  temper  and  firmness 


LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

with  which  you  had  handled  matters,  and  that  it  was  in  your 
hands  that  the  arrangement  was  reached  in  which  the  Bill 
became  a  matter  of  agreement  among  all  parties  in  the  House 
of  Commons. 

***** 

"  I  am,  dear  Mr.  Shaw, 

"Yours  ever  truly, 
"  ROBERT  RAINY." 

Will  you  please  forgive  this  epistle,  so  long,  so  dull? 
But  you  have  had  to  pay  the  penalty  of  demanding  a  full 
and  plain  account  from 

Your  very  devoted  parent, 

S.  OF  D. 


P.S. — I  should  have  mentioned  that  there  was,  as 
regards  the  judgment  of  the  House  of  Lords,  a  widespread 
uneasiness  as  to  whether  the  elementary  fact  had  been 
before  their  Lordships'  minds  that  the  funds  in  dispute 
were  not  an  endowment  to  which  the  Free  Church  had 
succeeded,  but  that,  on  the  contrary,  it  had  started  abso- 
lutely penniless,  that  all  that  it  possessed  had  been 
voluntarily  subscribed  and  given,  the  great  bulk  of  it  in 
quite  recent  days,  when  the  Church  had  cleared  her  testi- 
monies and  year  by  year  made  it  plain  that,  to  put  it  with 
moderation,  it  was  not  a  whit  bound  by  the  principle  of 
Establishment.  I  could  not  give  such  a  doubt  any  place 
in  my  mind,  but  many  people  did  entertain  it. 

Well,  two  years  ago  I  read  with  amazement  this 
account  of  the  case  by  no  less  distinguished  a  friend  than 
the  late  Lord  Alverstone,  Lord  Chief  Justice  of  England, 
who  was  one  of  the  actual  Judges  on  the  Appeal.  In  his 


STORM   AND   SUNSHINE  191 

"  Recollections  of  Bar  and  Bench  "  he  gives — writing  not 
very  long  after  the  event — the  following  version  of  the 
case,  which  I  have  underlined  and  marked  with  points  of 
exclamation  at  the  spots  of  most  astonishing  singularity : 

"  In  1904  I  was  summoned  to  the  House  of  Lords  to 
be  one  of  the  Judges  for  the  hearing  of  the  re-argument  in 
the  dispute  between  the  United  Presbyterian  Church  of 
Scotland  and  the  Free  Church !  Matters  had  been 
brought  to  a  crisis;  the  representatives  of  the  United 
Presbyterian  Church  had  attempted  to  eject  and  deprive 
of  their  offices  certain  Clergy  of  the  Free  Church  // 

"  The  first  argument  had  taken  place  before  the  Lord 
Chancellor,  Lord  Shand,  Lord  Macnaghten,  Lord  Lindley 
and  Lord  Robertson.  Lord  Shand  died  before  judgment 
was  delivered,  and,  in  consequence  of  a  difference  of 
opinion  between  their  Lordships,  the  case  was  ordered  to 
be  re-argued,  and  Lord  James  of  Hereford  and  I  were 
summoned.  The  late  Lord  President,  Lord  Kinross,  was 
also  asked  to  attend,  but  he  could  not  sit,  as  he  had  been 
consulted  by  some  of  the  parties  to  the  dispute.  The  case 
was  argued  largely  on  admissions  made  in  the  Record, 
and  the  facts  relating  to  the  later  history  of  the  United 
Presbyterian  Church  were  never  before  the  House  Iff  I 
only  mention  this  because  the  criticisms  after  the  judgment 
assumed  that  a  great  deal  more  evidence  had  been  given 
than  was  actually  the  case.  In  the  result  the  action  of 
the  United  Presbyterian  Church  was  held  to  be  illegal  ( ! ) 
and  their  endeavour  to  eject  the  Clergy  from  their  cures 
and  vicarages  not  to  be  justified  ///  'J 

Perhaps  I  should  not,  even  to  you,  make  any  comment 
on  all  this  ?  Fancy  that  version  not  only  entering  into  the 
head  of  any  man  who  had  had  to  do  with  the  case,  but 


I92  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

appearing  under  his  hand  in  black  and  white  !  A  more 
lamentable  lapse  of  memory  never  occurred,  even  in  all 
the  records  of  distinguished  Judges.  All  the  same,  this 
in  it,  at  least,  is  pretty  hard  to  bear.  The  United  Presby- 
terian Church  were  not  even  parties  to  the  case.  And  this 
puts  upon  that  body  a  course  of  conduct  which,  from  the 
point  of  view  of  its  principles,  would  have  been  nothing 
but  baseness  and  a  protracted  treachery.  And  then 
"  cures  and  vicarages  "  !  There  is  an  English  puzzle  for 
you ;  apply  such  language  to  such  a  case  ! 


LETTER    XXX 
BOTHA    AND    SMUTS 

9,  Bolton  Gardens.  S.W '.5. 

July  6,  1920. 
MY  DEAR  CHILD, 

What  think  you  of  the  following  quotation,  my  Lady, 
as  a  preface  to  another  letter?  You  know  the  passage 
well ;  and  you  remember  how  amidst  the  fun  of  the  Biglow 
Papers  we  suddenly  came  upon  it — startled  by  its  width 
of  vision,  its  statesmanship,  its  reverberating  English ! 
Lowell  had  the  gift,  rare  in  America,  of  aloofness  and 
perspective  where  national  issues  are  concerned;  and  so 
out  of  the  Mexican  imbroglio  he  read  his  countrymen  a 
lesson,  humorous,  but  very  serene  and  very  brave,  and  he 
made  all  of  us,  the  world  over,  his  debtors. 

Let  us  hear  again  the  famous  words  : 

"We  are  inhabitants  of  two  worlds,  and  owe  a  double,  but 
not  a  divided,  allegiance.  In  virtue  of  our  clay,  this  little  ball 
of  earth  exacts  a  certain  loyalty  of  us,  while,  in  our  capacity 
as  spirits,  we  are  admitted  citizens  of  an  invisible  and  holier 
fatherland.  There  is  a  patriotism  of  the  soul,  whose  claim  ab- 
solves us  from  our  other  and  terrene  fealty.  Our  true  country 
is  that  ideal  realm  which  we  represent  to  ourselves  under  the 
names  of  religion,  duty,  and  the  like.  Our  terrestrial  organiza- 
tions are  but  far-off  approaches  to  so  fair  a  model,  and  all  they 
are  verily  traitors  who  resist  not  any  attempt  to  divert  them 
from  this  their  original  intendment.  When,  therefore,  one 
would  have  us  to  fling  up  our  caps  and  shout  with  the  multi- 
tude :  '  Our  country,  however  bounded!'  he  demands  of  us 

N  IQ3 


194  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

that  we  sacrifice  the  larger  to  the  less,  the  higher  to  the  lower, 
and  that  we  yield  to  the  imaginary  claims  of  a  few  acres  of  soil 
our  duty  and  privilege  as  liegemen  of  Truth.  Our  true  country 
is  bounded  on  the  north  and  the  south,  on  the  east  and  the  west, 
by  Justice.  .  .  .  That  is  a  hard  choice,  when  our  earthly  love 
of  country  calls  upon  us  to  tread  one  path  and  our  duty  points 
us  to  another." 

The  like  of  that  doctrine  was  in  our  very  bones.  We 
were  a  minority,  but  a  minority  numbering  many  millions 
of  our  people,  when  in  the  autumn  of  1899  the  passions  of 
men  were  being  fanned  into  a  flame  for  the  destruction  of 
the  South  African  Republics. 

Some  weeks  before  hostilities  broke  out,  I  spent  all  the 
strength  I  had  in  the  study  of  the  diplomatic  correspond- 
ence. After  an  analysis  of  it,  made  publicly  and  point 
by  point,  I  ventured  so  far  as  to  make  these  declarations  : 

(1)  that  the  way  to  peaceful  settlement  was  clearly  open; 

(2)  that  war  was  avoidable ;  and  (3)  that  an  avoidable  war 
must  be  an  unjust  war.     Rightly  or  wrongly,  I  felt  that 
for  me  this  was  solid  ground,  and  that  no  inexpediencies, 
no  unpopularity,  no  man  alive,  should  shift  me  from  it. 
Here  was  a  case  of  squaring  the  elbows.      There  was 
trouble   ahead — trouble   and   plenty  of  it.     What  then? 

'  Turn  every  trouble  into  an  adventure." 

It  is  difficult  for  even  the  imagination  to  grasp  how 
vivid  were  the  ferocities  which  men  and  women  cherished 
in  regard  to  the  policy  of  the  South  African  War.  The 
appeals  for  a  calmer  judgment  were  treated  as  symptoms 
of  the  traitorous  mind.  "  I  want,"  said  one  decent  soul, 
"  to  bring  this  to  the  test  of  the  Scriptures."  "  O,  then," 
says  the  other,  "  you  are  a  Pro-Boer !  " 

That  was  the  common  story,  and  it  signified  quite 
accurately  the  attitude  of  mind  of  the  party  of  ascendancy 


BOTHA   AND   SMUTS  195 

and  their  impatience  of  any  appeal  to  reason.  Even  the 
signs  of  returning  calm  were  suspect,  and  the  ready  in- 
vective of  Mr.  Chamberlain  quickly  whipped  the  waters 
again  into  a  storm.  Between  that  invective,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  dialectical  skill  of  Mr.  Balfour  on  the  other, 
militarists  both  in  and  out  of  Parliament  had  the  time  of 
their  lives. 

Believing  that  their  country's  destiny  was  in  the  line 
of  their  policy,  they  naturally  encouraged  the  belief  that 
those  who  differed  from  them  were  worthy  of  but  scant 
respect.  In  journalism  they  found  their  powerful  mega- 
phone, and  in  public  discussions  freedom  grew  less  and 
less,  and  the  epithets  of  "  Traitor  "  and  of  "  Friend  of 
every  country  but  your  own  "  became  the  catch-words  that 
evoked  the  cheapest  of  cheers  in  the  vulgarest  of 
assemblies. 

Mr.  Lloyd  George  had  to  escape  from  a  gathering  at 
Birmingham  disguised  as  a  policeman.  In  my  much 
humbler  sphere  I  dare  say  thousands  would  have 
been  very  glad  to  see  me  hanged  at  the  nearest  lamp- 
post. 

Every  motive — of  convenience,  of  self-interest,  of 
comfort,  pointed  to  our  swimming  with  the  stream,  and 
had  we  done  that  we  should  have  been  certain  that  we 
were  wrong. 

Events  have,  of  course,  been  overruled  for  good; 
but  I  go  so  far  as  to  believe  that  the  forces  of  advanced 
Liberalism  saved  the  Empire.  After  the  passion  of  the 
war,  they  swept  its  authors  from  power,  and  in  the  working 
out  of  a  peace  they  inspired  the  grant  by  Sir  Henry 
Campbell-Bannerman  of  a  Constitution  for  South 
Africa. 


196  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

Lest  they  should  fade  from  my  mind,  I  will  tell 
you  five  things  which  are  memorable  in  this  connexion 
— one  as  to  General  Botha ;  another  as  to  General  Smuts ; 
a  third  as  to  carrying  a  challenge  of  martial  law  to  the 
very  steps  of  the  Throne;  a  fourth  as  to  Edinburgh 
and  its  defence  of  liberty;  and  a  fifth  as  to  your  own 

home. 

***** 

As  to  General  Botha.  How  well  I  remember  the  dis- 
cussions as  to  Chinese  labour !  The  war,  of  course,  was 
over;  but  this  and  other  problems,  and,  above  all,  the  lack 
of  self-government,  kept  South  Africa  a  land  of  unrest  and 
running  sores. 

I  had  gone  over  the  Blue  Books  on  the  labour  sub- 
ject, and  was  charged  by  "  C.-B."  to  lay  the  matter 
before  the  House  of  Commons  by  open  challenge.  The 
speech  was  afterwards  published  and  had  a  wide  cir- 
culation, and,  I  suppose,  has  gone  the  way  of  all  fugitive 
literature.  Bannerman,  Morley  and  others  were  by  my 
side;  John  Burns,  Lloyd  George  and  others  were  watch- 
ing below  the  gallery,  Burns'  great  lungs  punctuating  the 
storm,  the  development  of  which  was  watched  with  acute 
and  critical  eyes  by  clever  men  in  the  Government  and 
on  the  bench  opposite. 

All  that  is  neither  here  nor  there,  but  the  point  is  that 
I  cited  Botha  on  the  floor  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
saying  plainly  that  I  reckoned  him  a  most  responsible 
witness  and  that,  if  nobody  would  speak  up  for  him  in 
that  House,  I  would  do  so  myself. 

I  am  not  going  to  bore  you  in  these  letters  by  quoting 
political  speeches;  but  you  must  let  me  off  if  I  quote  to 
you  just  this  sentence  or  two  in  defence  of  the  great 


BOTHA  AND  SMUTS  197 

General  and  Statesman.     The  date  I  see  is  the  i7th  of 
February  of  the  year  1904. 

"I  wish,"  I  said,  "to  tell  the  Colonial  Secretary  frankly  that 
I  do  not  think  it  makes  for  harmony  in  the  relations  of  one 
race  to  another  to  use  such  language  as  he  employed  last  night 
with  regard  to  General  Botha,  who  was  spoken  of  in  terms 
which  implied  and  expressed  that  he  had  suppressed  evidence. 
There  was  a  suppression  of  evidence,  but  it  was  not  suppressed 
by  General  Botha.  General  Botha  had  actually  prepared  a 
written  statement  of  the  evidence  he  was  willing  to  lay  before 
the  Commission  appointed  to  investigate  the  shortage  of  labour, 
but  when  he  tendered  that  evidence  they  declined  to  receive 
it.  ...  One  of  the  Commissioners  asked  why  the  statement 
offered  by  General  Botha  had  not  been  accepted.  Then  the 
Chairman  said  that  that  statement  had  been  handed  to  him 
that  morning,  and  he  had  had  representations  made  to  him. 
'  It  was  impossible  to  ask  him  to  delete  certain  portions  of  it,' 
said  the  Chairman,  '  as  it  mainly  dealt  with  the  question  of 
Chinese  labour,  which  is  not  before  us.'  With  regard  to  this, 
all  I  will  say  is  that  it  does  not  lie  in  the  mouth  of  the  Govern- 
ment which  sanctioned  the  institution  of  a  Commission  so  care- 
fully limited,  either  to  hustle  the  House  of  Commons,  or  to 
make  any  reflection  or  suggestion  of  suppression  of  evidence 
against  this  honourable  man — an  honourable  friend  and  an 

honourable  foe — General  Botha." 

.!f]   ;>»>n-  yo  r      .?'<ffi  fnrw  ivto/; 

As  it  turned  out,  Botha's  views,  derided  though  they 
were,  proved  full  of  good  sense.  This  defence  of  him, 
however,  riveted  the  sincere  friendship  which,  though 
parted  as  we  were  by  the  wide  seas,  I  knew  him  to 
entertain  for  me. 

At  a  time  when  the  real  peace  was  accomplished  a 
great  transformation  of  opinion  in  this  country  was  wit- 
nessed, and,  while  the  Pro-Boers  may  not  have  become 
popular,  the  persons  who  undoubtedly  did  were  the  Boers 
themselves  !  General  Botha  visited  this  country  then,  and 
he  was  well  received  in  the  highest  quarters.  I  remember 


well  a  little  dinner  given  by  Mackarness,  when  there 
were  half  a  dozen  of  us  or  so  to  meet  him  :  in  journalism, 
Massingham;  in  Parliament,  Lloyd  George  and  myself; 
and  I  think  also — but  of  this  I  am  not  quite  sure — that 
Sydney  Buxton  was  with  us.  Anyhow,  after  the  dinner, 
and  before  we  parted,  George  and  I  said  to  Botha  a  word 
or  two  as  to  the  political  battles  that  had  been  fought,  and 
Botha  replied,  "  Gentlemen,  you  need  not  think  it  likely 
that  I  shall  ever  forget  what  Liberalism  has  done  for 
Africa." 

The  remainder  of  the  story  I  have  from  Botha's  own 
lips.  Shortly  after  the  death  of  Lord  Courtney — dear 
friend,  great  economist,  deep  thinker,  moral  and  political 
stalwart — shortly  after  his  death  your  mother  and  I  visited 
Lady  Courtney,  and  who  should  come  into  the  room  but 
General  and  Mrs.  Botha?  I  reminded  him  of  the  little 
dinner,  and  he  said  he  remembered  it  well.  Then  he 
added  : 

"  Do  you  know  that  at  that  time  Arthur  Balfour 
asked  me  to  lunch,  and  after  lunch  he  asked  a  private 
word  with  me.  You  had  just  passed  the  Bill  granting  a 
Constitution  to  Africa  through  Parliament." 

"  I  remember  well,"  said  I,  "  Arthur  Balfour  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  visibly  suiting  the  action  to  the  word, 
and  saying  that  he  would  wash  his  hands  of  it.  And  as 
for  Milner,  he  took  the  line,  openly,  that  he  would  spew 
it  out  of  his  mouth." 

Let  me  here  interrupt  Botha's  story  to  interpolate  this, 
that  I  have  not  been  able  to  verify  these  expressions, 
although  I  cannot  get  it  out  of  my  mind  that  they  were 
used.  But  the  Parliamentary  record  shows  that  they  are 
far  from  exaggeration;  they  seem  within  the  mark.  How 


BOTHA   AND   SMUTS  199 

odd  the  reading  is !  Lord  Milner's  portentous  gravity — 
that— 

"mischief  has  been  done  which  can  never  be  retraced," 

and  that — 

"  it  is  too  soon  after  the  events  of  the  last  few  years  to  run  the 
risk  of  seeing  the  whole  executive  power  in  the  colony  trans- 
ferred to  the  hands  of  men  who  must  at  present  be  totally  out 
of  sympathy  with  the  British  institutions  which  they  will  never- 
theless be  called  upon  to  work." 

And  the  names  of  Generals  Botha  and  Smuts  were 
used  to  whet  the  edge  of  fear ! 

This  timidity  and  distrust  took  a  wilder  argumentative 
form  when  Mr.  Balfour  took  the  floor. 

"No  human  being  ever  thought  of  such  an  experiment  before 
— that  of  giving  to  a  population  equal  to  and  far  more  homo- 
geneous than  our  own,  absolute  control  of  everything  civil  and 
military.  There  is  nothing  to  prevent  the  country  making  every 
preparation,  constitutionally,  quietly,  without  external  interfer- 
ence, for  a  new  war." 

He  wound  up  by  roundly  declaring — 

"I  am  astonished  that  any  Government  or  any  Party  that 
cherished  the  British  connexion  in  the  Transvaal  should  desire 
so  audacious  an  experiment  to  be  tried," 

•  ifii-!  Ot  l«i<%-:  *'t"-is  '1  '  "  O   ' 

and  by  denouncing  the  grant  at  such  a  time  of  a  Constitu- 
tion to  South  Africa  as— 

"the  most  reckless  experiment  ever  tried  in  the  development  of 
a  great  colonial  policy." 

Think  of  that  now  !  In  politics  is  there  not  the  whole 
diameter  of  distinction  between  Courage  with  Vision,  and 
Timidity  without  it  ?  Tell  me,  when  you  come  to  consider 
it.  who  are  the  true  Imperialists? 


200  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

Now  let  us  get  back  to  Botha,  and  the  talk  with  Mr. 
Balfour  after  lunch. 

"  O,  I  remember,"  said  Botha,  "  how  they  committed 
themselves ;  and  when  Balfour  spoke  to  me  he  said, 

'  Well,  Botha,  you  have  done  it ;  you  have  got  your 
Constitution.  What  will  come  of  it?  Who  can  tell? 
What  will  you  be  up  to  next  ?  ' 

"  I  said  to  him,  '  Mr.  Balfour,  I  believe  that  in  five 
years'  time  I  shall  return  to  this  country  to  ask  for  the 
Confederation  of  South  Africa.' 

f  No,'  replied  Mr.  Balfour,  very  vehemently  to  me, 
'  the  thing  is  impossible,  is  incredible.' 

'  Well,  we  shall  see,'  I  answered ;  and  so  we  parted." 

There  was  a  pause,  and  then  Botha  resumed  : 

"  And  so  it  came  about  that,  sure  enough,  in  five  years' 
time  I  did  return,  bringing  with  me  the  Confederation  of 
Africa.  Mr.  Balfour  was  good  enough  again  to  ask  me  to 
lunch,  and  again  he  asked  me  for  a  few  words  privately 
afterwards.  He  said  to  me, 

'  Well,  General  Botha,  this  is  an  extraordinary 
situation;  you  have  done  it  again;  you  have  got 
Confederation.' ' 

"  What  happened  then  ?  "  said  I. 

"  O,"  he  said,  "  I  just  said  to  him  : 

"  c  Mr.  Balfour,  will  you  wash  your  hands  of  that  ? ' 
and  he  replied  to  me, 

"  '  Not  very  likely/  " 

So  the  whirligig  of  Time  goes  round  and  round. 


Would   you   like   now  to  hear  my  little   story   about 
Smuts  ? 


BOTHA   AND   SMUTS  201 

I  think  that  some  things — our  attitude  through  the 
war,  our  positive  declinature  to  have  opinion  stifled — were, 
of  course,  well  known  in  Africa,  and  when  General  Smuts 
returned  to  this  country  as  the  representative  of  South 
Africa  in  connexion  with  the  Great  European  War,  he  and 
I  were  naturally  drawn  together.  I  think  General  Smuts 
is  himself  a  very  great  lawyer,  and  that  his  powers  in  that 
respect  have  never  been  fully  put  to  the  proof. 

At  the  time  of  my  making  his  acquaintance  I  was  writ- 
ing a  large  and  complicated  judgment  dealing  with  the 
foundations  of  freedom  and  of  those  constitutional  things 
which  underlay  the  roots  of  the  question  whether  any 
subject  of  this  realm  could,  even  by  the  authority  of  the 
King's  Council,  be  imprisoned  without  a  trial. 

As  I  stood  alone,  I  am  bound  to  conclude  that  I  took 
the  wrong  view.  After  the  subsidence  of  that  passion  for 
expediencies  and  short-cuts  which  a  time  of  war  produces 
I  wonder  how  the  same  problem  would  have  fared.  Right 
to  be  docile,  of  course ;  but — I  wonder  !  Anyhow,  twelve 
judges  were  on  the  one  side  and  I  was  on  the  other. 

Well,  the  point  about  Smuts  is  this.  He  was,  as  a 
young  man,  a  distinguished  student  of  the  Middle  Temple 
and  had  held  high  legal  office  in  Africa.  My  own  election 
as  an  Honorary  Bencher  of  that  Inn  was,  as  I  still  feel,  one 
of  the  most  gracious  and  beautiful  things  that  were  ever 
done  to,  me  within  the  sphere  of  the  law.  There  is  no 
such  organization  in  the  North;  and,  a  stranger,  I  was 
inducted  into  a  goodly  fellowship  which  reaches  the  point 
of  companionship  both  with  the  Bench,  and  with  the  Bar, 
upon  whose  advocacy  I  lean  so  much,  and  more  and  more. 
Using  my  privilege  I  asked  General  Smuts  to  dine  as  my 
guest  at  the  Middle  Temple. 


202  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

England  was  reverberating  with  his  statesmanlike 
utterances  on  Imperial  topics.  As  our  guest  he  won  all 
hearts ;  and  in  a  few  weeks  he  too  was  made  an  Honorary 
Bencher.  It  was,  I  think,  at  that  very  dinner  that  my 
mind  was  sizzling  over  with  the  big  constitutional  task  on 
which  I  was  engaged.  So  I  broke  the  ice  and  I  discussed 
this  very  judgment  with  him.  He  saw  the  crux  of  the  case 
in  a  moment,  and  informed  me  that  the  same  point  had 
been  settled  in  a  case  decided  in  the  Privy  Council  on  an 
appeal  from  Pondoland.  I  asked  the  date,  and  he  gave 
me  the  date  within  six  months.  I  turned  up  the  Reports 
and  found  that  he  was  right  in  every  particular,  and  a  page 
or  a  page  and  a  half  of  that  judgment  is  really  in  that  way 
the  work  of  General  Smuts  rather  than  of  myself. 

Now  here  is  something  far  more  important.  Listen. 
General  Smuts  one  evening,  after  I  had  had  him  to  dine, 
with  the  Lord  Chancellor  and  some  of  the  great  Judges, 
in  Palace  Gate,  disclosed  to  me  what  had  happened  in  the 
fateful  Conference  at  Vereeniging,  when  the  question  of 
the  continuation  of  the  war  and  the  achievement  of  peace 
with  South  Africa  was  hanging  by  a  thread. 

They  discussed  far  into  the  night.  Lord  Milner  was 
obdurate — I  think  Smuts's  words  were,  "  He  was  impos- 
sible." When  all  hope  seemed  lost,  Smuts  felt  himself 
gripped  by  the  elbow  and,  looking  round,  he  saw  Lord 
Kitchener,  who  whispered  to  him  :  "  Come  out;  come  out 
for  a  little."  The  two  of  them  left  the  Conference  and 
they  paced  outside  back  and  forward  through  the  dark. 

Kitchener  and  Smuts  were  both  well  aware  of  the 
accumulating  horror  of  a  long  guerrilla  warfare.  They 
were  both  sincerely  anxious  for  an  arrangement.  And 
then  Kitchener  said  to  him, 


BOTHA   AND   SMUTS  203 

"  Look  here,  Smuts,  there  is  something  on  my  mind 
that  I  want  to  tell  you.  I  can  only  give  it  you  as  my 
opinion  ;  but  my  opinion  is  that  in  two  years'  time  a  Liberal 
Government  will  be  in  power;  and  if  a  Liberal  Govern- 
ment comes  into  power  it  will  grant  you  a  Constitution  for 
South  Africa." 

Said  Smuts,  "  That  is  a  very  important  pronounce- 
ment. If  one  could  be  sure  of  the  like  of  that,  it  would 
make  a  great  difference." 

"  As  I  say,"  said  Kitchener,  "  it  is  only  my  opinion, 
but  honestly  I  do  believe  that  that  will  happen." 

1  That,"  said  General  Smuts  to  me.  "  accomplished 
the  peace.  We  went  back,  and  the  arrangements  at  the 
Conference  were  definitely  concluded,  and  the  war  came 
to  a  close." 

Now,  as  I  was  saying,  I  have  three  other  instances  illus- 
trative of  the  spirit  of  those  times  —  one  about  an  appeal 
to  the  Throne,  one  about  Edinburgh,  and  one  about  your 
own  home  —  but  it  is  time  you  were  off  to  your  violin,  and 

you  can  leave  your  old  father  in  his  den. 
J  1 

Off  with  you  ! 

Your  loving 

FATHER. 


bn&  ^kf 
z&'t? 
» 


LETTER    XXXI 

"  ABOVE    THIS   SCEPTRED   SWAY  " 

9,  Bolton  Gardens.  S. W .$. 

June  24,  1920. 
ISABEL  MY  DEAR, 

I  do  not  know  that  it  is  possible  to  make  you  realize 
the  extraordinary  length  to  which  the  creatures  of  the 
militaristic  spirit  were  at  that  time  led  in  regard  to  the 
South  African  War — to  its  inception,  to  its  conduct,  to  its 
consequences.  Their  impatience  of  criticism  was  beyond 
belief.  The  Olympian  tone  which  in  Press  and  in  Parlia- 
ment and  in  private  life  they  adopted  towards  those  who 
wanted  even  to  maintain  the  elementary  principles  of 
international  law  was  a  spectacle  for  gods  and  men.  It 
quite  maddened  such  people  when  some  of  us  declined  to 
be  awe-struck. 

Of  this  I  will  give  you  an  instance.  Just  in  the  middle 
of  the  war  sinister  rumours  were  afloat  as  to  our  doings  in 
the  name  of  martial  law;  and  suddenly  the  death  of 
Scheepers  rang  through  the  world.  He  was  known  to 
have  been  an  able  and  powerful  enemy  openly  in  the  field 
against  us.  He  was  taken  prisoner,  tried  by  a  military 
court,  and  to  all  intents  and  purposes  shot  out  of  hand.  I 
believe  the  case  not  to  have  been  creditable  either  on  the 
martial  or  the  judicial  side.  And  the  suddenness  and 

swiftness  of  the  procedure  made  some  of  us  resolve  that 

204 


205 

we  should  go  through  a  good  deal  ere  the  like  of  that,  if 
we  could  help  it,  should  happen  again. 

Almost  at  the  same  juncture,  however,  word  reached 
this  country  that  General  Kritzinger,  a  capable  and  honour- 
able military  leader,  had  been  brought  from  prison  for 
trial  by  martial  law.  That  is  to  say,  the  very  same  story 
over  again  seemed  about  to  be  enacted — a  man  tried  by 
his  enemies  on  charges  rapidly  and  probably  very  imper- 
fectly canvassed,  and  swiftly  sent  to  his  doom. 

The  Minister  of  War  of  that  day  was  Mr.  Brodrick, 
an  apparently  whole-hearted  sympathizer  with  military 
methods,  and  a  quite  contemptuous  person  with  regard  to 
those  who  were  critical  of  them.  Questions  were  put  in 
the  House  of  Commons.  The  Government  was  asked  : 
What  were  the  charges  upon  which  General  Kritzinger 
was  being  tried?  It  declined  to  tell.  At  what  date  was 
the  trial  to  take  place?  It  declined  to  say.  Would  the 
House  of  Commons  have  an  opportunity  of  interposing 
in  the  matter  in  the  event  of  Kritzinger  being  sentenced 
to  death?  It  declined  to  give  any  word  of  satisfaction. 
The  Government  was  on  its  high  horse  and  the  horse  was 
at  the  gallop. 

There  was  a  meeting  at  Essex  Hall  one  afternoon 
just  then,  a  meeting  of  people  who  declined  to  be 
either  submissive  or  overawed  in  face  of  these  official  on- 
goings, and  who  were  quite  willing  to  adopt  any  course 
within  reason  which  would  make  the  War  Office  call  a 
halt. 

Just  let  me,  for  example,  interpose  this,  to  show  to 
what  a  pass  public  opinion  in  England  had  come.  Alas  ! 
we  knew  well,  but,  as  it  turns  out,  not  well  enough,  that 
a  certain  side  of  the  Liberal  party  was  soaked  with  mili- 


206  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

taristic  Imperialism.     The  horrors  of  martial  law  could 
not  rouse  it. 

One  thing  proves  this.  I  did  not  know  it  at  the  time, 
or  it  may  have  escaped  my  memory.  But  Mr.  Gooch's 
"  Life  of  Lord  Courtney  "  establishes  it.  He  quotes  a 
letter  addressed  by  Courtney  on  the  i3th  February,  1902 
— a  letter  to  Lord  Rosebery,  asking  him  to  speak  up  for 
Kritzinger  in  a  speech  next  day  at  Liverpool  : 

'  There  may  be  legal  arguments,"  he  wrote,  "  to  defend 
the  execution  of  Scheepers.  There  were  overwhelming 
legal  arguments  to  defend  the  execution  of  Ney;  but  it 
has  been  condemned  by  history,  and  we  have  always  been 
proud  to  believe  that  the  Duke  tried  to  prevent  it.  Let 
not  Kritzinger  undergo  the  same  fate  as  Scheepers !  The 
scheme  of  executing  these  enemies  is  surely  too  sophistical 
and  too  odious  to  beguile  your  judgment,  and  a  word  such 
as  you  can  say  might  serve  to  relieve  us  from  the  con- 
demnation of  Kritzinger's  murder." 

The  appeal  was  unsuccessful.  In  Mr.  Gooch's  words, 
"  Lord  Rosebery  replied  that  unrestricted  authority  must 
be  given  to  the  man  on  the  spot." 

Well,  it  was  in  circumstances  such  as  these  that  the 
Essex  Hall  meeting  was  held. 

The  gathering  was  crowded,  and  those  there  were  all 
in  a  state  of  deep  and,  it  may  be,  inflammable  anxiety. 
My  own  blood  was  up;  I  reflected  in  a  sentence  or  two 
on  the  Scheepers  procedure  and  then  told  them  of  what 
was  being  done  in  the  Kritzinger  case.  We  were  able  to 
affirm  nothing  as  to  guilt  or  innocence,  but  surely  we  were 
entitled  to  have  the  judicial  decencies  observed  in  the 
issues  of  life  and  death.  I  told  them  about  the  refusals 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  it  required  no  words  of 


"ABOVE   THIS   SCEPTRED   SWAY"    207 

mine  to  make  them  realize  the  desperation  of  the  position. 
I  then  broadly  advised  them  to  make  no  further  appeal  to 
the  Government,  to  make  no  further  appeal  to  the  War 
Office,  to  make  no  further  appeal  to  the  House  of 
Commons,  but  to  go  straight  to  the  King  himself.  There 
was  a  storm  of  excitement,  and  it  was  there  and  then 
resolved  that  they  would  do  that  very  thing. 

Channing  (afterwards  Lord  Channing),  H.  J.  Wilson 
(a  high  principled  and  fearless  English  Liberal)  and  my- 
self were  appointed  a  Committee,  with  instructions,  if  you 
please,  to  go  ahead  and  to  take  what  I  had  recommended  as 
the  only  possible  course.  At  the  close  of  the  meeting  we 
three  looked  at  each  other,  and  we  said,  "  Now,  how  can 
we  do  it  ?  "  We  walked  up  to  the  Reform  Club  together 
and  Channing  communicated  with  the  Court  officials,  and 
discovered  that  His  Majesty  was  then  on  a  visit  to  Lord 
Burton  in  Derbyshire;  so  we  sat  down  and  composed  a 
long  telegram  to  King  Edward.  Channing  was  a  Privy 
Counsellor;  I  was  a  King's  Counsel;  if  I  mistake  not, 
Wilson  also  was  a  Privy  Counsellor,  but  that  event  might 
have  come  later.  However,  we  were  what  you  might  call 
responsible  men — two  of  us  afterwards  Peers,  and  all  three 
afterwards  Privy  Councillors — and  we  began  our  telegram 
by  presenting  our  humble  duty  to  His  Majesty,  and  after 
narrating  briefly  the  circumstances  of  Kritzinger's  case,  we 
implored  the  Sovereign  to  exercise  his  Royal  prerogative 
so  that  the  reputation  of  British  justice  and  the  good  name 
of  the  Empire  might  not  suffer  a  stain.  Off  went  the 
telegram. 

Then  a  curious  thing  happened.  The  telegram  was 
not  ignored.  On  the  contrary,  a  letter  was  received  from 
Knollys  (afterwards  Lord  Knollys),  His  Majesty's  Private 


208  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

Secretary,  telling  Channing  that  he  must  know,  of  course, 
that  the  sending  of  such  a  telegram  ought  to  have  been, 
not  direct  to  His  Majesty,  but  through  a  Minister,  yet 
doing  this  in  such  a  way  as  not  to  leave  us  without  hope. 
To  this  we  frankly  replied  that  we  knew  the  course  we 
had  adopted  was  irregular,  and  that  we  deliberately  meant 
it  to  be  so,  because  the  circumstances  were  such  as  to  have 
made  us  lose  all  belief  in  the  channel  of  approach  to  the 
Crown  to  which  he  had  referred ;  that  what  we  wanted  to 
get  at  was  that  the  King  himself  should  know  what  was 
going  on.  In  order,  however,  to  save  the  position,  we 
had  had  pleasure  in  forwarding  a  copy  of  our  telegram  to 
the  King  to  the  Secretary  for  War. 

The  affair  did  not  end  there.  We  got  a  note  from 
Knollys  saying  that  His  Majesty  was  pleased  that  we  had 
forwarded  the  communication  through  a  Minister,  and 
there  the  matter  stopped. 

Was  the  door  of  justice  and  of  mercy  shut?  Not  a  bit. 
In  a  week  or  two  news  came  from  South  Africa  that  Krit- 
zinger's  trial  was  delayed  for  a  few  weeks.  We  waited; 
and  both  in  Africa  and  in  Britain  many  waited  with  curi- 
osity and  anxiety.  Then  the  trial  did  come  on.  It  was  ap- 
parently conducted  with  deliberation,  and  it  lasted,  I  think, 
three  days.  At  the  conclusion  the  Court  unanimously 
found  Kritzinger  not  guilty,  and  he  was  dismissed.  Then, 
as  I  heard  the  account,  he  was  recalled  so  that  each  member 
of  the  Court  might  have  the  opportunity  of  shaking  hands 
with  so  distinguished  and  honourable  a  foe. 

That  is  the  story,  my  dear,  to  the  best  of  my  recollec- 
tion. Who  would  not  love  King  Edward  after  that?  You 
know  the  lines  about  mercy  being  enthroned  in  the  hearts 
of  kings,  but  the  lines  come  short  a  little  when  they  talk 


o 

D      c' 

1  1 

Q     Q 

W 


W  £ 

S3  ° 

«  a 

J  (S 


"ABOVE   THIS   SCEPTRED   SWAY'      209 

about  mercy  seasoning  justice.  It  often  does  more  than 
that.  In  many,  many  cases  mercy  is  Justice  itself.  It  was 
to  a  monarch  in  whose  heart  mercy  was  truly  enthroned, 
and  of  the  reputation  of  whose  people  through  the  war  he 
considered  himself  to  be  the  ultimate  trustee — it  was  to 
such  a  monarch  that  this  highest  appeal  to  British  justice 
was  made  and  did  not  fail. 

It  is  late,  but  the  daylight  still  floods  the  long  still 

evening.     God  bless  you  ! 

Your  loving 

FATHER. 


LETTER    XXXII 

EDINBURGH    AND    FREEDOM 

9,  Bolton  Gardens.,  S. W  .$. 

July  8,  1920. 
MY  DEAREST  ISABEL, 

You  are  not  old  enough  to  remember,  but  your  brother 
and  your  sisters  to  some  extent  do,  these  "  nearer  home  " 
touches  which  I  am  going  to  give  you  about  the  period  of 
the  African  War. 

The  old  Liberalism  of  Scotland  was  sagging,  and 
when  Lord  Rosebery  headed  the  Liberal  Imperialism 
Movement,  and  thereafter  the  formation  of  the  Liberal 
League,  he  carried  with  him  many  very  able  men  who 
upon  the  whole  on  almost  every  topic  inclined  to  the  old 
Whig  rather  than  to  the  modern  Radical  side.  Yet  they 
made  no  headway,  and  not  even  the  power  of  Lord  Rose- 
bery's  eloquence  could  guide  the  movement  of  feeling 
upon  the  part  of  the  great  mass  of  liberally-minded  men  in 
the  country. 

This  is  a  part  of  general  history;  and  with  that  I  shall 
not  weary  you.  In  Edinburgh  the  dissatisfaction  with 
such  guiding,  however,  took  the  form  of  an  uprising  by 
the  young  men,  who  formed  what  was  known  as  the 
'  Young  Scots'  Society,"  and  who  were  inspired  by  a 
clever  and  daring  political  thinker  and  writer,  Mr.  Hector 
MacPherson,  of  the  Edinburgh  Evening  News. 

A  few  of  us,  including  dear  Arthur  Dewar  (afterwards 


210 


EDINBURGH   AND   FREEDOM          211 

Lord  Dewar),  a  Mr.  John  Blair  (one  of  the  ablest  lawyers 
in  Scotland)  and  myself,  gave  open  countenance  to  the 
operations  of  the  Young  Scots,  and  the  fun  began.  Mr. 
Hogge,  now  a  Member  for  Edinburgh,  was  near  the  centre 
of  the  actual  organization,  always  alert  and  active  in  every 
way,  and  never  afraid  to  be  in  the  crown  of  the  causeway. 

Nearly  everybody  lectured  to  them  who  was  of  im- 
portance as  a  leader  of  opinion  either  in  England  or  in 
Scotland,  and  the  movement  spread  rapidly  to  other  towns, 
and  even  south  of  the  Tweed. 

Mr.  Merriman,  a  former  Prime  Minister  of  the  Cape, 
was  in  England  with  Mr.  Sauer,  to  put  the  rational  case, 
as  they  viewed  it,  of  South  Africa  before  the  public  mind. 
An  effort  was  made  to  get  Mr.  Merriman  to  come  to  Edin- 
burgh, and  the  proposal  was  derided  with  hootings.  Every 
hall  that  could  be  thought  of  was  refused,  and  it  was  clear 
that  free  speech  was  to  be  put  on  its  trial. 

A  vote  was  taken  in  the  Town  Council  as  to  whether 
the  Waverley  Market  (a  great  flat  building,  capable  of 
holding  many  thousands  and  of  being  the  scene  of  rough 
enough  exploits,  it  was  true)  should  be  let  on  the  applica- 
tion of  these  young  blades.  It  was  their  only  chance  to 
get  a  meeting,  and  there  was  keen  division  in  the  Town 
Council.  But  the  engagement  of  the  hall  was  ratified, 
ominous  enough  statements  being  made  as  to  its  glass  roof, 
its  convenience  for  missiles  from  the  street,  and  all  the  rest 
of  it. 

And  then  public  opinion  began  to  be  stirred  up  to 
unquestionable  mischief.  The  managing  men  in  the 
Society  came  to  me  and  told  me  that  they  expected  that 
there  would  be  serious  disturbance. 

I  asked  if  that  meant  that  freedom  of  speech  in  Edin- 


314  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

and  the  roaring  all  around,  I  watched  the  proceedings, 
and  they  were  very  interesting. 

The  defenders  of  the  meeting  were  in  posses  of  six. 
One  of  them  approached  a  man  who  was  bellowing  like 
a  bull  in  a  field,  touched  him  on  the  shoulder,  and  asked 
him  if  he  would  be  so  kind  as  to  allow  the  meeting  to 
proceed.  In  no  case  that  I  saw  was  this  request  complied 
with.  On  the  contrary,  the  questioner  was  replied  to  with 
insults  which,  not  to  put  too  fine  a  point  upon  it,  were 
unparliamentary.  Then  the  disturber  was  gripped — one 
man  taking  one  leg  and  another  another,  one  taking  one 
arm  and  another  another — and  laid  out  horizontally,  the 
fifth  man  leading  the  way,  and  the  sixth  man  supporting 
the  head  behind.  Out  they  went,  each  success  provoking 
a  mixture  of  feelings  and  of  outcries. 

I  deliberately  allowed  this  to  go  on,  knowing  what 
was  to  happen.  I  was  aware  that  the  managers  of  the 
meeting  had  informed  the  police  that  they  meant  to  see 
freedom  of  speech  preserved  in  Edinburgh,  that  they  meant 
to  keep  within  the  law,  and  that  they  trusted  to  the  police 
preserving  the  peace. 

At  twenty-five  minutes  past  eight  Mr.  Merriman,  who 
was  sitting  with  his  body  rocking  and  his  head  in  his  hands 
beside  me,  said, 

"  O  Mr.  Shaw,  Mr.  Shaw,  stop  it !  This  will  never 
do.  Let  us  give  it  up." 

"  Not  a  bit,"  said  I  to  him,  in  the  midst  of  the  hubbub ; 
"  we  are  getting  on  first-rate." 

So  he  held  himself  together  for  another  ten  minutes. 
I  then  called  out  in  a  loud  voice  to  the  Chief  of  the  Police, 
and  asked  him  to  bear  witness  that  we  had  been  thirty-five 
minutes  trying  to  exercise  our  rights  as  citizens  in  the 


EDINBURGH   AND   FREEDOM         215 

practice  of  free  discussion,  and  that  we  were  being  deliber- 
ately prevented  from  the  exercise  of  those  rights  by  dis- 
turbers of  the  peace. 

Thereupon  a  great  calm  fell  upon  the  gathering,  for 
from  a  side  door  there  emerged  a  posse  of  two  or  three 
hundred  policemen,  who  walked  round  the  outskirts  of  the 
assembly,  gradually  enclosing  it,  until  a  ring  of  police 
put  tht  operations  of  the  disturbers  manifestly  under  sur- 
veillance. The  effect  was  immediate.  Hundreds  of  them 
rose,  gathered  themselves  together,  and  poured  out  of 
the  hall,  their  exit  being  cheered  to  the  echo  by  all  friends 
of  the  meeting. 

The  speeches  then  began,  I  recommending  plainly  that 
the  affair  should  be  made  like  Paddy's  blanket  by  taking 
the  thirty-five  minutes  that  had  been  cut  off  the  top  and 
fastening  them  on  to  the  foot ! 

It  added  no  little  to  the  success  of  the  gathering  that 
Mr.  Merriman's  dispassionate  speech  was  far  too  moderate 
for  the  occasion.  It  was  not  fiery  enough  for  those  in  the 
meeting,  and  it  totally  deprived  the  opponents  in  the  Press 
of  any  defence  for  declining  to  hear  such  a  well-reasoned, 
thoughtful  contribution  to  a  great  public  issue. 

After  we  got  home,  which  we  had  to  reach  again  by 
detour,  we  found  that  an  attempt  had  been  made  to  attack 
my  house.  A  large  gang  of  roughs  had,  however,  fled 
from  the  scene  when,  at  a  signal  from  Alexander,  your 
brother,  who  made  a  sprint  out  in  front  of  them  when 
they  were  going  down  the  hill,  the  police,  who  were  on  the 
spot,  lined  up  across  the  street.  The  attack  was  not 
repeated,  but  the  police  kept  their  posts  till  well  on  in 
the  morning. 

Really,  I  was  not  aware  of  the  importance  of  it  all 


216  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

at  the  time.  I  was  in  fact  deeply  engaged  in  a  heavy 
law  case,  and  when  I  resumed  a  cross-examination  the 
next  morning,  the  learned  judge,  a  good  Tory,  looked  at 
me  with  a  twinkle  in  his  eyes.  Secretly,  I  believe  every 
respectable  Unionist  in  the  country  was  glad  that  things 
had  gone  as  they  did.  People  from  all  parts  wrote  to  me 
of  the  public  value  of  what  they  were  pleased  to  call  the 
fidelity  and  the  courage  that  must  have  animated  the 
Society  in  its  vindication  of  a  big  constitutional  right. 

The    Press    was    in    a    state    approaching    apoplectic 
spitfire  ! 


Then,  dear  Isabel,  here  is  another  thing  which  you 
were  not  told  for  many  years  afterwards,  but  which  hap- 
pened in  the  home  in  Abercromby  Place,  and  which  I  may 

entitle  — 

"  WHO  WAS  THE  BURGLAR  ?  " 

How  can  I  describe  to  you  that  ferment  of  mind  into 
which  great  masses  of  people  were  worked  up,  against 
those  who  challenged  the  militaristic  policy.  Nothing  was 
too  bad  for  them  to  believe  of  us.  Insulting  messages, 
black  flags,  a  hundred-fold  use  of  the  cowardly  postcard, 
false  applications  for  passports  to  Holland,  and  all  the 
apparatus  of  meanness  and  invective  were  an  everyday 
occurrence.  But  we  simply  held  on  and  refused  any  sort 
of  intimidation.  A  convenient  idea  was,  for  instance,  that 
your  worthy  and  respected  father  was  in  the  pay  of  Kruger  ! 
What  man  or  newspaper  ever  began  it  I  never  was  at  the 
trouble  to  find  out;  but  there  were,  of  course,  plenty  of 
people,  crazy  with  political  prejudice,  who  took  it  for 
Gospel. 


EDINBURGH   AND   FREEDOM          217 

And  so,  when  we  returned  from  our  holiday  one  autumn 
day,  I  began  dealing  with  my  accumulated  correspond- 
ence. My  shorthand  clerk  sat  down  at  the  library  table, 
and  just  as  the  dictation  began,  he  said  to  me  : 

"  Excuse  me,  Mr.  Shaw,  but  the  drawers  of  your  desk 
are  all  broken  open." 

"What!"  said  I. 

And  we  looked,  and  there  they  were,  every  drawer  on 
both  sides  in  the  huge  desk  burst  open  with  a  jemmy  ! 
The  locks  were  still  sticking  out,  but  the  woodwork  had 
been  wrenched  away.  More  than  that,  every  official  or 
omcial-loaking  box  was  also  wrenched  open — boxes  such 
as  that  containing  my  appointment  as  a  Deputy- 
Lieutenant,  my  appointment  as  Solicitor-General,  and  the 
like  ! 

Then  we  went  through  the  house.  The  same  thing 
had  happened  all  over  it.  The  dining-room  sideboard 
was  wrenched  open.  Even  in  the  breakfast-room,  the 
little  tin  box  in  which  the  children  put  their  pennies  had 
been  burst  open.  Nothing  through  the  house  that  might 
seem  to  have  contained  secrets  or  papers — nothing  had 
been  missed. 

Then  we  returned  to  the  desk,  and  found  that  it  was 
pretty  plain  that  every  document  had  been  carefully 
searched. 

Not  an  article  in  the  house  was  stolen  ! 

The  police  were  sent  for,  and  it  was  discovered  that 
the  burglars — I  suppose  we  must  call  them  political 
burglars — had  got  access  to  the  house  through  a  skylight, 
and,  we  being  away,  had  had  a  free  run  of  the  premises. 

I  remember  well  the  Chief  Lieutenant  saying  to  me 
with  oracular  solemnity  : 


218  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

"  Mr.  Shaw,  this  is  no  ordinary  burglary." 

"  It  is  not,"  said  I. 

"  Mr.  Shaw,"  he  added,  "  this  is  a  political  matter." 

"  It  is,"  said  I. 

"  Sir,"  he  said,  "  this  needs  careful  investigation.  I 

wonder  whether  it  is  connected  with "  A  particular 

street  in  Edinburgh.  (I  decline,  my  dear,  to  give  you 
the  name  of  that  street,  or  even  its  shape.) 

I  said  to  him,  "  Now,  officer,  you  must  keep  this  quiet, 
absolutely  quiet.  Murder  will  out.  Let  us  keep  our  eyes 
and  ears  open." 

I  was  quite  wrong.  That  murder  never  came  out.  I 
hope  the  poltroons  are  still  alive,  but,  if  not,  God  rest 
their  bones !  To  not  a  soul  in  these  trying  years  did  I 
mention  the  event.  I  was  a  busy  man ! 

I  was,  however,  really  disturbed  about  your  mother. 
The  sweet  sanctity  of  her  home  invaded  :  and  many  of 
the  things  that  were  dear  and  cherished  scrutinized  and 
tossed  about  or  torn  up  !  She  associated  such  conduct 
with  desperadoes,  and  I  could  not  quite  persuade  her  that 
they  were  only  cowards.  But  she,  who  had  sustained  me 
in  these  difficult  years,  bore  this  also  with  a  quiet  heroism 
which  is  just  part  of  herself.  Be  good  to  her  :  Be  good 

to  her ! 

Your  loving 

FATHER. 


LETTER    XXXIII 

FROM     REPRISALS    TO     RECONCILIATION 

9,  Bolton  Gardens,  SW  .$. 

November  10,  1920. 
ISABEL  MY  DEAR, 

Since  I  have  come  to  town,  the  main  topic,  if  not  of 
discussion,  at  least  of  public  uneasiness,  has  been  what 
are  called  "  Reprisals."  I  mean,  of  course,  what  has  been 
going  on  in  Ireland  at  the  alleged  hand  or  instigation  of 
the  Government.  Well,  you  will  have  your  own  opinion 
about  all  that,  I  dare  say  :  so  have  I.  But  the  only  bearing 
which  it  has  upon  my  pledge  to  you  about  letters  is  that 
it  brings  other  notorious  cases  of  Reprisals  to  my  mind. 

Besides,  you  have  seen  how  much  of  those  years  in  the 
Wilderness  was  occupied  with  South  African  affairs  :  so  I 
may  just  as  well  write  you  another  word  or  two  on  the 
same  topic ;  and  ere  we  are  done  with  it  you  will  find  that 
we  are  back  to  Westminster  again  and  in  the  company 
of  that  one  of  our  circle  who  was  our  most  beloved  of 
public  men. 

People  talk  of  reprisals  as  if  some  new  horror  had  been 
invented  in  the  department  of  war,  as  if  some  new  clever- 
ness, defiant  of  military  rules  and  of  honourable  traditions, 
had  come  into  play.  Believe  me,  there  is  nothing  of  this 
sort  about  reprisals.  The  Law  of  Nations  against  them 
has  been  clear  beyond  question  for  at  least  over  a  century ; 
but  war  is  such  an  inflamer  of  passions  that  it  tramples 

219 


220  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

into  dust  traditions  and  regulations  and  international  con- 
ventions and  all  the  provisos  that  nations  at  a  time  of 
peace  and  reason  seek  to  set  up.  Oblivion  enshrouds 
all  these,  and  humanity  yields  to  something  so  savage  as 
to  make  us  ask  ourselves  whether,  after  all,  progress  and 
civilization  are  not  verily  at  an  end. 

Sir  Henry  Campbell-Bannerman  had  been  for  years 
Secretary  for  War,  and  he  knew  not  only  the  international 
rules  but  the  provisions  of  the  military  "  Red  Book." 
When  I  spoke  to  him,  accordingly,  and  spoke  very 
anxiously,  on  the  subject  of  Lord  Roberts'  Proclamations, 
I  was  speaking  to  a  skilled  ear.  I  told  him  how  uneasy  I 
was  as  to  the  whole  of  the  on-goings  in  South  Africa  under 
these  military  and  administrative  Orders,  and  how  my 
fear  was  that  gross  violations  of  the  Law  of  Nations  had 
been  and  were  being  perpetrated.  He  encouraged  me  to 
make  a  thorough  study  of  the  subject,  and  I  did  this  to  the 
best  of  my  power ;  and  no  voice  was  more  hearty  than  his  in 
commendation  of  the  line  I  took  in  April  of  the  year  1901. 
I  was  speaking  to  an  extremely  hostile  House  of 
Commons,  but,  I  am  bound  to  say,  to  an  extremely  atten- 
tive ©ne,  and  there  was  no  violation  of  courtesy. 

Catch  me  treat  you  in  a  letter  to  that  speech.  Hansard 
has  it,  and  some  of  the  societies  printed  it  and  sent  it  round. 
But,  as  I  was  saying,  it  is  a  curious  thing  how  this 
kind  of  reprisal  repeats  itself  in  history.  On  June  16, 
1900,  a  Proclamation  was  issued  in  Africa  by  Lord 
Roberts.  On  reflection,  I  cannot  but  think  that  the  great 
general  was  from  the  beginning  most  uneasy  on  the 
subject  of  it.  It  acerbated  African  feeling,  prolonging, 
as  I  think,  the  war,  and  doing  much  to  retard  the  settle- 
ment. But  there  were  forces  behind  Lord  Roberts  which 


FROM    REPRISALS   TO   RECONCILIATION   221 

were  extremely  difficult  to  control,  and  it  may  have  been 
that  among  his  advisers  at  the  Front  there  was  a  reflection 
of  some  part  of  that  extraordinary  bitterness  and  passion 
which  was  manifest  in  Government  circles  at  home. 
When  that  kind  of  feeling  is  poured  into  the  mind  of  a 
nation  there  is  no  saying  to  what  courses  those  in  authority 
may  be  led. 

I  need  not  refer  to  that  part  of  the  Proclamation  which 
authorized  the  selection  from  each  district  of  Boers  to  be 
put  upon  trains  passing  through.  This  was  in  reprisal  for 
damage  having  been  done  to  trains.  It  was  in  imitation 
of  a  German  transaction  of  1870  which  had  been 
universally  and  justly  reprobated,  and  which,  according 
to  international  authority  which  I  cited,  was  treated  in  the 
German  case  as  an  illegal  brutality.  This  view  must  have 
reached  headquarters  long  before  I  spoke,  and  it  redounds 
to  the  credit  of  Lord  Roberts  that  five  weeks  after  the 
date  of  the  Proclamation  that  part  of  it  was  withdrawn. 

The  other  part  of  the  Proclamation  was,  however,  much 
more  serious.  It  ordered  a  thing  which  I  said,  and  I  still 
believe  it,  may  have  moved  to  revulsion  the  heart  of  civil- 
ized mankind,  viz.,  the  devastation  of  the  country,  the  burn- 
ing of  houses  and  farms  and  the  dealing  with  the  residents 
therein  under  martial  law,  "  in  the  vicinity  where  damage  is 
done."  Of  course,  everybody  understands  that,  by  the 
Laws  of  Nations  and  of  war,  it  is  not  permitted  to  destroy 
property  unless  it  is  used  directly  or  indirectly  for  belli- 
gerent purposes,  nor  is  it  permitted  to  molest,  plunder, 
imprison  or  injure  any  citizens  of  a  hostile  Power  who  are 
non-combatants — this  rule  being  the  nearest  approximation 
which  the  rough  laws  of  war  can  make  to  the  elementary 
justice  of  not  punishing  the  innocent  for  the  guilty. 


222  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

Lord  Roberts,  still  uneasy,  wrote  to  General  Botha 
in  September  an  unhappy  dispatch  which  made  things 
worse.  He  confessed  that  the  measures  were  repugnant 
to  him,  but  declared  that  he  was  obliged  to  resort  to  them 
"  by  the  evidently  firm  resolve  on  the  part  of  yourself  and 
the  burghers  to  continue  the  war."  In  other  words,  be- 
cause you  continue  to  fight,  we  shall  do  things  repugnant 
not  only  to  law  but  to  our  better  nature. 

Then  in  November  a  curious  thing  happened.  Lord 
Morley,  on  the  i6th,  wrote  a  letter  to  the  Times,  which  I 
quoted  as  "  eloquent,  touching  and  powerful,"  and  two 
days  afterwards  the  notable  Proclamation  of  June  was 
declared  by  Lord  Roberts  in  a  subsequent  Proclamation 
to  have  been  misunderstood.  Its  meaning  was  declared  to 
have  been  confined,  so  far  as  the  burning  of  farms  was 
concerned,  to  acts  of  treachery,  or,  in  short,  to  those 
belligerent  operations  which  International  Law  takes  stock 
of.  Nothing  more  unfortunate  in  the  issue  of  a  military 
document,  and  nothing  more  highly  creditable  in  military 
history  than  its  recall,  do  I  remember.  But  for  that  recall, 
we  could  not  have  looked  the  Germans  in  the  face  to 
declare  ourselves  shocked  at  their  conduct  in  Belgium  and 
France.  And  the  very  principles  on  which  the  Liberals 
then  relied  in  the  debate  to  which  I  am  referring  were  the 
principles  which  to  its  honour  Britain  founded  upon  and 
followed  in  its  repudiation  of  these  German  doings. 

Alas  !  in  the  African  case  it  was  difficult  to  recall  the 
awful  effects  of  what  had  been  done.  A  few  days  after 
the  debate  in  the  House  of  Commons  to  which  I  am 
referring,  a  White  Paper  of  the  most  appalling  character 
was  issued,  showing  that  634  farms  had  been  burned,  and 
that  in  many  cases  the  sole  reason  assigned  was  that  the 


FROM   REPRISALS   TO   RECONCILIATION   223 

owner  was  "  on  commando  " — that  is  to  say,  was  fighting 
for  his  country — and  in  many  more  the  still  more  awful 
reason  was  assigned — "  husband  on  commando."  Families 
turned  out  on  the  veldt,  property  and  furniture  burned  to 
the  ground. 

How  difficult  the  task  of  subsequent  statesmanship  ! 
To  eradicate  an  imprint  so  poignant  and  so  deep  upon 
the  memory  of  men  and  women  and  children  !  Impos- 
sible ?  Nothing  in  true  statesmanship  is  impossible. 

It  was  to  that  colossal  task  that  Sir  Henry  Campbell- 
Bannerman  devoted  a  large  part  of  his  later  years,  and 
in  it  he  was  aided  by  the  vast  forgiveness  of  Generals 
Botha  and  Smuts  :  Botha,  whose  wife  wandered  for  months 
hiding  in  the  veldt,  driven  from  her  home ;  and  Smuts, 
whose  wife  was  herded  to  a  Concentration  Camp,  where 
her  first  and  infant  child  shortly  died  !  Is  it  not  to  the 
glory  of  the  Dutch  and  Anglo-Saxon  races  that  at  a 
supreme  moment  their  leading  statesmen  rose  to  the  call 
of  that  oblivion  of  a  dark  past  which  makes  possible  a 
glorious  future  of  co-operation  and  unity  and  human  kind- 
ness ?  The  obscurantists  who  would  undo  that  settlement 
are  the  enemies  of  mankind. 

It  is  easy  now  for  us  to  recall  such  incidents  of  Parlia- 
mentary discussion ;  but  it  is  less  easy  than  it  was  to  under- 
stand what  point  statesmanship  in  England  had  reached 
which  did  not  understand  the  call  of  law  and  of  humanity 
which  was  then  made.  Our  protestations  in  a  Parliament 
constituted  as  was  that  of  1900  were  all  in  vain.  Lord 
Roberts  in  the  field  was  a  wiser  man.  He  saw  without 
doubt  the  awful  dilemma  in  which  British  policy  had 
placed  him  when  it  declared  the  annexation  of  the 
Republics — an  annexation  on  paper  not  made  effective  by 


224  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

actual  occupation,  and  therefore  entirely  contrary  to  law. 
Such  an  annexation  placed  the  population,  however  well- 
doing they  might  be,  however  anxious  for  a  quiet  life 
under  any  Government  whatsoever,  however  innocent  of 
crime,  in  the  awful  dilemma  of  being  either  the  rebels  to 
one  Power  or  the  traitors  to  another. 

What  were  such  people  to  do?  Above  them  there 
was  placed,  as  the  lawyers  say,  a  Government  de  jure; 
around  them  they  had  the  Government  of  their  own  race 
and  country  —  a  Government  de  facto.  The  position  of 
Germany  in  Belgium  was  more  legitimate  than  this,  for 
Germany  had  overrun  Belgium  in  fact. 

A  strange  analogy  occurs  to  the  mind  from  the  times 
in  which  we  live.  Always  there  is  the  same  difficulty 
where  rule  is  ineffective,  where  there  is  what  I  have  said, 
the  one  Government  above  and  the  other  Government 
around.  Then,  indeed,  whether  it  be  Dutchmen  or 
Belgians  or  Irishmen,  with  each  and  all  of  them  it  is  the 
same  lament  of  Rosse  : 

"  Cruel  are  the  times  when  we  are  traitors 

And  do  not  know  ourselves  :  when  we  hold  rumour 
From  what  we  fear,  yet  know  not  what  we  fear, 
But  float  upon  a  wild  and  violent  sea 
Each  way  and  move." 


How  is  it,  my  dear  child,  that  I  have  got  into  this 
long  political  talk?  Perhaps  it  is  that  in  the  intimacies 
of  life  which  I  have  made  I  have  seen  how  this  stern 
South  African  battle  tried  the  character  and  hearts  of  men. 
Statesmen  at  home,  statesmen  in  Africa,  they  needed 
courage  and  wonderful  wisdom.  Would  that  I  could  have 
helped  them  more  ! 


FROM   REPRISALS  TO   RECONCILIATION   225 

In  those  days  I  took  refuge  in  literature  and  in  history. 
In  literature  the  happiest  of  misfortunes  had  overtaken 
me.  The  old  fat  Shakespeare — you  remember  it — the 
Johnson  Shakespeare  without  the  back,  got  lost.  Alex- 
ander presented  me  with  another,  the  three-volumed 
edition  of  Macmillan.  So  I  kept  in  that  high  company 
over  again,  re-marking  the  whole  plays  and  sonnets  once 
more,  and  finding  and  noting  fresh  glories,  thus  light- 
ing up  with  delight  what  otherwise  would  have  been  the 
saddened  intervals  of  strenuous  days.  But  more  than 
that :  late  in  life — alas  !  how  late  ! — I  let  myself  loose  on 
Spenser,  spreading  myself  among  his  spacious  times  and 
finding  him  a  veritable  revelation.  I  even  dragged  him 
on  to  platforms,  reciting  in  the  midst  of  the  keen  conflict 
on  the  big  issue  of  the  day  such  lines  as  these  : 

"  Is  this  the  joy  of  armes?    Be  these  the  parts 
Of  glorious  knighthood  after  blood  to  thrust 
And  not  regard  due  rights  and  just  desarts? 
Vaine  is  the  vaunt,  and  victory  unjust 
That  more  to  mighty  hands  than  rightful  cause  doth  trust." 
#  #  #  #  # 

And  in  those  days,  too,  I  took  my  other  refuge  in 
history,  studying  deeply  the  annals  of  Canada.  I  put 
together  an  article  on  what  I  called  "  The  Durham  Road 
to  Peace,"  which  Knowles,  clever  editor,  deeply  cut  and 
carved  upon,  but  published  in  the  Nineteenth  Century. 
It  pointed  out  how  when  a  fusion  of  races,  or  at  least  a 
working  constitutional  unity,  was  wished  for,  it  could  not 
be  secured  by  the  iron  heel,  but  alone  by  the  olive 
branch. 

The  famous  Report  of  Lord  Durham,  about  the  year 
1840,  laid  down  the  lines  of  forgiveness  and  amnesty  so 
determinedly  that  the  so-called  Loyalists — that  is  to  say, 


226  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

the  short-sighted  fire-eaters — rioted'  in  the  streets  of 
Montreal  and  burned  the  Governor-General's  residence 
about  his  ears.  The  fire-eaters  and  fire-raisers  were 
quelled,  and  then  the  policy  of  amnesty  triumphed.  It 
was  for  such  a  settlement  as  that,  by  the  way,  that  I  spoke 
in  express  terms  in  the  speech  in  the  Commons  to  which 
I  have  referred. 

Canada ;  Africa :  Forgiveness,  amnesty,  the  wisdom 
of  oblivion  of  evil,  the  call  of  a  human  brotherhood  wider 
and  deeper  and  better  than  antagonisms  of  race  :  will 
history  teach  men  nothing  of  the  value  of  these  noble 
things;  and  how  they  last;  and  how  they  heal?  People 
and  Governors  of  Ireland,  bethink  yourselves ;  consider ! 

On  these  things  my  interventions  were  founded,  and 
perhaps  they  helped  Sir  Henry  a  little,  for  on  them  we 
were  absolutely  agreed.  Anyhow,  closer  and  closer  I  got 
into  the  intimacy  of  his  friendship,  and  as  I  did  so  I 
found  that  he  was  gifted  with  the  rarest  qualities  of  vision 
and  with  a  fearlessness  that  was  quite  indomitable.  How 
steadying  it  was  to  have  him  as  a  counsellor  and  friend  ! 
Was  not  your  father  a  very  lucky  man? 

Here  is  a  little  bundle  of  letters  which  I  have  come 
upon.  I  cannot  open  it  to-night :  it  is  late,  and  I  must 
go  to  rest.  How  often  you  have  heard  me  say,  until  it 
has  become  one  of  our  family  maxims,  that  the  greatest 
of  British  institutions  is  the  waste-paper  basket.  Well, 
by  some  kind  of  good  luck  these  letters  never  reached 
that  receptacle.  Perhaps  in  a  day  or  two  I  will  disclose 
some  things  from  the  little  bundle. 

Good  night. 

Your  loving 

FATHER. 


LETTER    XXXIV 

TEMPTATIONS    IN    THE    WILDERNESS 

Craigmyle. 

September  25,  1920. 
DEAREST, 

In  this  quiet,  how  the  poets  come  back  to  you  :  how 
you  find  them  helping  you  out  by  giving  form  and  ex- 
pression to  the  moods  of  nature  and  one's  thoughts  about 
them !  The  tempestuous  passing  of  another  equinox, 
and  then  the  succession  of  these  sweet  and  placid  and 
reflective  days. 

For  the  former  came  Tennyson's  strong  lines  (how 
often  is  real  strength  concealed  by  the  perfection  of  his 
measure) : — 

"  Risest  thou,   this  dim  dawn  again, 
And  howlest,   issuing  out  of  night, 
With  blasts  that  blow  the  poplar  white 
And  lash  with  storm  the   streaming  pane?  " 

And  then  the  welcome  drought  with  the  tang  in  its 
reminder  that  the  year  is  in  the  fall.  And  out  there  the 
glorious  harvest :  how  can  you  express  the  response  of 
the  soul  to  the  sense  of  plenty,  and  ingathering,  and  the 
passage  of  time  ?  You  do  it  in  the  words  of  Shakespeare's 
immortal  sonnet : — 

"  When  lofty  trees  I  see,  barren  of  leaves, 
Which  erst  from  heat  did  canopy  the  herd, 
And  summer's  green  all  girded  up  in  sheaves, 
Borne  on  the  bier  with  white  and  bristly  beard." 
227 


228  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

Then  comes  the  inevitable  reflection  about  beauty  and 
the  wastes  of  time.  But  why  should  we,  with  our  faith, 
turn  transiency  into  an  obsession?  Why  should  we? — 
but  then  I  seemed  to  see  you  standing  right  in  the  middle 
of  that  barley  field,  a  good  deal  more  attractive  than  Ruth, 
and  you  were  telling  me — a  very  unattractive  Boaz — that 
you  had  not  come  so  far  for  musings  but  for  gleanings. 
Gleanings  you  were  after — gleanings  :  where  were  the 
gleanings?  My  dear,  I  am  rebuked.  Now  then  for 
gleanings. 

I  was  speaking,  in  a  letter  some  time  ago,  of  the 
Temptations  in  the  Wilderness.  The  Liberals  were  out 
for  the  ten  years  from  1895  till  1905.  Of  all  the  Tempta- 
tions, Liberal  Imperialism  was  the  chief — well  supported 
in  men  and  funds,  well  organized,  well  advertised;  and 
plain  ordinary  Liberalism  felt  that  to  yield  to  it  would  be 
to  lose  its  soul.  This  may  have  been  right  or  wrong,  but 
that  was  how  people  felt.  It  was  how  I  felt  myself.  All 
through  the  Education  battles  and  into  the  South  African 
War,  this  Temptation  was  the  drag  that  was  on  the  party 
led  by  Sir  William  Harcourt  in  the  Commons. 

But  that  war,  of  which  I  have  told  you  an  incident 
or  two — that  war  might  and  did  appear  to  many  as  at  least 
some  justification  for  a  separate  organization  of  Liberals 
who  sided  with  the  militarist  position.  Yet,  as  you 
may  imagine,  it  was  a  pretty  heavy  addition  to  the 
labours  of  those  who  had  to  lead  the  party  as  a  sound 
Opposition. 

Well  then,  what  happened  next?  Surely,  when  the 
war  was  over,  this  kind  of  thing  could  come  to  an  end ! 
Not  a  bit  of  it.  A  new  Temptation  in  the  Wilderness 


TEMPTATIONS   IN   THE   WILDERNESS  229 

appeared.  But  this  time  it  was  more  of  a  theatrical 
affair.  The  dramatic  company  the  same.  Lord  Rosebery, 
alas !  had  left  the  leadership  of  the  party.  Sir  William 
Harcourt,  alas  !  had  resigned,  and  none  of  the  able  trio, 
Asquith,  Grey  and  Haldane,  had  been  selected  to 
succeed  him.  The  choice  fell  on  Sir  Henry  Campbell- 
Bannerman. 

Mutterings  could  not  be  stilled  :  the  same  powerful, 
dissatisfied  men  were  at  work,  and  another  hyphenation 
saw  the  light.  Enter  the  Liberal  League.  Of  course  these 
men,  able,  versed  in  affairs,  in  the  prime  of  their  powers, 
were  entirely  within  their  rights  in  pushing  their  versions 
of  national  duty  to  the  front  and  in  claiming  that  reason 
lay  with  them.  But  when  they  dubbed  theirs  the  true 
Liberalism  and  put  the  name  on  their  signboard,  they  ran 
the  risk  of  disintegrating  all  the  progressive  forces  in  the 
country.  And  some  of  us,  who  had  seen  in  the  Com- 
mons and  its  Lobbies  what  a  weight  and  harassment 
disunion  was  to  leadership,  felt  that  all  this  was  really 
too  bad  to  the  old  cause  and  to  Sir  Henry  Campbell- 
Bannerman. 

It  was  in  these  circumstances  that  in  September  of  the 
year  1902  I  received  an  invitation,  worded  curiously 
enough,  to  accompany  Lord  Rosebery  to  the  platform 
when  he  addressed  a  great  meeting  in  the  Empire  Theatre 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Edinburgh  and  East  of  Scot- 
land Liberal  League.  The  country  was  being  elaborately 
mapped  out :  the  ex-Premier  was  himself  President  of  the 
organization,  and  most  naturally  there  were  the  highest 
expectations  in  regard  to  the  new  and  determined  political 
departure. 

I  replied  to  the  invitation  by  the  following  letter : 


230  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

"17,  Abercromby  Place, 
"  Edinburgh. 

"September  25,  1902. 
"DEAR  MR.  CLAY, 

"I  am  in  receipt  of  your  circular,  in  which  you  intimate 
that  Lord  Rosebery  will  deliver  a  political  address  in  Edin- 
burgh on  October  25,  under  the  auspices  and  in  furtherance 
of  the  principles  of  the  Liberal  League,  and  stating  that,  if  I 
am  in  general  sympathy  with  the  objects  of  the  meeting,  and 
desire  to  attend,  you  would  be  pleased  to  forward  to  me  a 
platform  ticket.  I  should  gladly  have  put  the  circular  aside 
without  remark  were  it  not  that  you  request  an  answer,  and 
I  accordingly  write  to  you  to  thank  you  for  the  invitation  and 
to  decline  it. 

"  How  do  the  facts  stand  ?  Lord  Rosebery  was  asked  by  the 
Scottish  Liberal  Association  to  address  a  meeting  in  Edinburgh 
this  autumn,  and  he  declined;  he  was  asked  by  the  United 
Liberal  Council,  representing  the  four  constituencies  of  the 
City,  to  address  a  meeting  this  autumn,  and  he  again  declined ; 
and  now  he  comes  forward  to  address  a  meeting  in  the  same 
place,  and  at  the  same  time,  under  the  auspices  and  in  further- 
ance of  the  principles  of  the  Liberal  League.  Can  there  be  any 
meaning  in  this  but  one? 

"That  one  whom  we  admire  and  esteem,  one  through  whose 
continued  co-operation  with  the  party  he  once  brilliantly  led 
so  much  good  can  be  done  and  evil  avoided  for  our  people, 
and  one  to  whom  we  look  for  loyal  and  powerful  work  in  the 
future,  that  he  should  thus  reject  the  whole  and  choose  a  section 
is  indeed  strange,  and,  had  it  not  happened,  would  have  been 
declared  incredible.  This  is  especially  regrettable  at  a  time 
when  the  country  is  justly  hostile  to  the  present  Government 
and  is  earnestly  looking  for  that  unity  and  cohesion  in  the 
Opposition  by  which  alone  can  be  secured  an  effective  change 
in  the  direction  of  public  affairs.  From  this  point  of  view  your 
meeting  is  not  merely  a  party  misfortune ;  it  is  a  national  loss. 
As  a  Liberal,  anxiously  desiring  the  health  and  growth  of 
Liberalism,  I  cannot  accordingly  say  that  I  am  in  general 
sympathy  with  the  objects  of  the  meeting. 

"As  to  furthering  the  principles  of  the  Liberal  League,  let 
us  be  frank  about  it.  Take  '  efficiency.'  Who  is  not  for 


TEMPTATIONS   IN   THE   WILDERNESS   231 

efficiency  ?  Why  should  one  side  of  politics  imitate  the  other 
side  in  the  presumption  of  capturing  vague  and  sounding 
generalities  for  party  use  ?  I  should  as  little  admit  that 
efficiency  had  a  sectional  significance  among  Liberals,  as  agree 
that  '  Empire  '  and  '  Constitution  '  were  the  special  care  of 
the  Tory  party.  Take  '  education.'  Who  is  not  in  favour 
of  education  ?  But  come  down  to  particulars  :  and  while  99 
per  cent,  of  Liberals  are  against  the  present  English  Education 
Bill,  the  i  per  cent,  who  stamp  it  with  a  certain  approval  are 
good  and  able  friends  of  my  own  who  devoutly  believe  in  the 
furthering  of  the  principles  of  the  Liberal  League.  The  list 
already  grows  bare,  but  I  need  not  refer  to  such  principles 
further. 

"Faithfully  yours, 

"THO.  SHAW." 

This  was  plain  speaking.  Others,  infinitely  more  im- 
portant than  I — notably  Mr.  Morley — had  been  working 
in  the  same  direction,  deprecating  disunion,  pleading  fear- 
lessly for  the  old  faith,  and  so  on;  and  the  Liberal 
League's  real  position  and  possible  future  for  good  or  for 
mischief  soon  became  a  subject  of  wide  discussion  all  over 
the  Kingdom. 

Fortunately  the  chief  adventurers  in  the  enterprise  were 
saved  for  the  service  of  the  country.  The  dexterity  and 
forbearance,  the  determination  and  goodwill,  of  the  lov- 
able "  C.B."  shone  in  a  transaction  of  which  I  will  try  to 
give  you  an  inside  view  by  and  by. 

Unfortunately,  the  gifted  Earl — high  office  saw  him 
no  more.  More  and  more  he  withdrew  from  the  range 
of  public  affairs.  This  has  been  a  source  of  infinite  regret : 
and  the  occasions  have  surely  not  been  infrequent  during 
the  great  European  War  when  his  word  for  good  would 
have  been  a  word  of  power. 

You  must  not  think  that  he  who  knew  the  game  so 


232  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

well  ever  treated  myself  as  one  who  had  not  played  it. 
On  the  contrary,  I  spoke  for  his  son  in  Midlothian,  and 
that  with  pleasure  and  great  goodwill.  Little  did  I  dream 
then  that  within  a  few  years  my  own  son  would  be  stand- 
ing for  the  same  county.  And  little  did  I  dream  that,  like 
Lord  Rosebery,  I  should  watch  that  contest,  without  per- 
sonal participation,  but  with  that  aloofness,  real  or  feigned, 
which  becomes  a  member  of  the  House  of  Lords. 

Certain  incidents  stick  in  the  mind.  One  evening 
during  the  earlier  contest  I  dined  at  Dalmeny ;  we  got  into 
some  kind  of  historical  strain,  give  and  take,  and  I  have 
seldom  heard  even  that  host  so  illuminating  and  so  attrac- 
tively vivid.  Emerging  from  the  dining-room,  still  in 
talk,  we  were  confronted  by  a  bust  of  Mirabeau,  just  oppo- 
site. I  stopped  before  it :  it  was  true  to  nature  and  showed 
an  appallingly  ugly  man.  I  said  : 

"  Lord  Rosebery,  did  you  ever  hear  what  the  father  of 
Mirabeau  said  to  the  uncle  of  Mirabeau  ?  " 

"What  was  that?"  said  he;  "I  don't  think  I  know 
that." 

"  Oh,"  said  I ;  "  the  youngster  was  attacked  by  small- 
pox or  some  trouble  of  that  kind;  and  there  was  a  nurse 
who  besmeared  his  face  with  an  ointment  which  horribly 
disfigured  it  for  life.  The  father  conveyed  the  news  to 
the  uncle  in  a  brief  compendious  letter,  which  said  :  '  Your 
nephew  is  as  ugly  as  the  nephew  of  the  devil/  ' 

It  won  a  smile  from  the  cultured  Earl. 


As  to  the  Liberal  League,  it  had  a  few  big  explosions ; 
then  there  was  a  flicker  here  and  there.     Then  silence. 
I  heard  quite  enough  about  that  blessed  letter — written, 


TEMPTATIONS   IN   THE   WILDERNESS  233 

by  the  by,  this  very  day  eighteen  years  ago.  Its  only 
point  was,  as  it  happened,  that  it  expressed  the  protest 
of  tens  of  thousands  of  plain,  sturdy  people  who  wanted 
peace  and  progress  and  an  end  to  turmoil.  Well,  some- 
body has  to  do  these  things.  Said  Morley  to  me  :  "I  call 
you  Thomas  Bell-the-Cat." 

Sir  Henry  was  hearty  enough. 

"  I  was  at  Wiesbaden;  and  one  day  Tom  Sutherland, 
in  the  reading-room  of  the  hotel,  handed  me  across  the 
Times,  pointing  with  his  finger  and  saying,  '  Have  you 
read  that  ? ' 

"  '  What  did  you  think  ? '  said  I,  wanting  to  get  at  his 
mind. 

"  '  Think !  '  said  he.  '  I  was  like  the  auld  wife  in  the 
sang.  I  gied  three  skips  ower  the  floor,  O  !  ' 

I  am  off  through  the  fields. 

Your  ever  affectionate 

FATHER. 


LETTER    XXXV 

SIR    HENRY   CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN 

9,  Bolton  Gar  dens  >  S.W.$. 

October  25,  1920. 
MY  DEAREST  GIRL, 

To  be  back  again  and  into  judicial  harness  will,  of 
course,  be  rather  a  hindrance  to  my  doing  my  duty  as  a 
letter-writer  to  your  dear  self. 

The  air  is  full  of  rumours.  An  actual  strike  of  all  the 
coal-miners  in  the  country  has  already  lasted  over  a  week  : 
and  a  strike  is  threatened  of  all  the  railway  workers  in 
the  country — threatened  from  a  desire  to  exhibit  sympathy 
or  to  show  solidarity  in  labour,  or,  among  the  younger 
bloods,  to  have  a  fling  of  leisure  and  liberty  as  well  as  the 
colliers.  And  many  anxieties  there  are  for  public  men, 
with  too  little  consideration  of  these  by  a  nervous  and 
irascible  public. 

This  is  what  one  is  in  the  midst  of  here.  To  lift  one's 
head  after  a  day  of  severe  judicial  labour  is  but  to  find 
oneself  deafened  with  the  clamorous  difficulties  of  public 
issues.  While  you !  you  are  still  lingering  amidst  the 
country  quiet  of  these  sweet  October  days. 

Often  at  such  times  I  think  upon  my  old  and  trusted 
confidential  aclviser.  To  him  it  was  that  I  could  with 
utter  frankness  tell  how  I  interpreted  the  currents  of  public 
affairs,  for  what  storms  I  thought  I  could  foresee  that  we 
should  be  prepared,  and  what  rocks  and  shoals  the  political 

234 


SIR  H.   CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN      235 

mariner  should  avoid.  I  knew  that  everything  was  safe 
in  his  keeping,  that  he  would  check  me  with  wisdom, 
encourage  me  with  kindness,  and  turn  things  so  deli- 
ciously  topsy-turvy  that  sunshine  broke  over  all  the  land- 
scape. 

You  know,  of  course,  that  I  am  speaking  of  Sir 
Henry  Campbell-Bannerman.  Of  all  the  rewards  of 
days  and  nights  through  years  on  end  of  political 
labour,  this,  I  think,  was  the  greatest,  that  he  was  my 
friend. 

The  first  occasion,  if  I  remember  aright,  on  which,  so 
to  speak,  we  took  the  floor  together  was  at  Stirling.  He 
had  been  hearing  of  how  I  was  getting  on  in  the  Border 
Burghs,  and  he  had  me  along  to  eke  out  a  constituency 
meeting.  You  could  see  how  he  got  on  with  his  consti- 
tuents. He  never  was  a  fluent  speaker;  but  his  hesitations 
were  studied,  and  these,  along  with  the  burr  of  his  accent 
and  the  weightiness  of  what  he  said,  riveted  the  attention 
of  these  Scotchmen  upon  him.  Everyone  had  a  general 
feeling  that  here  is  the  talk  of  a  man  who  knows,  to  men 
who  trust  him. 

Thus  it  was  that  political  confidence  in  him  wavered 
little;  and  what  he  was  to  these  Stirling  Burghs  on  the 
small  scale,  he  was  also  on  the  wider  range  to  the  Liberal 
Party  which  he  afterwards  led.  To  trust,  however,  Sir 
Henry  Campbell-Bannerman  was  to  give  yourself  to  him; 
and,  doing  so,  he  welcomed  you  into  the  circle  of  his 
confidence. 

But  if  ever  Liberal  or  constituent  or  citizen  in  private 
or  in  public  showed  signs,  I  will  not  say  of  double  dealing, 
but  of  being  too  clever  and  not  completely  on  the  square, 
Sir  Henry  Campbell-Bannerman — more  quickly  than 


236  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

any  man  I  ever  knew — discerned  that  thing,  and  saw 
in  it  the  negation  of  true  friendship  and  the  death  of 
confidence. 

I  think  that  that  is  how  I  would  put  my  testimony  of 
him.  Hesitations,  timidities,  searchings  of  heart — these 
he  could  see  with  a  great  kindliness  when  they  were  symp- 
toms of  searching  for  truth ;  but  sharpnesses,  clevernesses, 
subtleties,  finesse — these  also  he  could  unerringly  see; 
but  he  looked  upon  these  things  as  dangerous  to  truth. 
That  was  how  people  who  loved  him  loved  him  so  much, 
and  people  who  affected  to  despise  him  showed  that  in 
their  hearts  they  realized  that  Sir  Henry  had  found  them 
out.  I  have  persons — public  men — in  my  eye,  when  I 
speak  thus. 

The  next  big  bump  of  contact  was,  I  think,  in  Alloa, 
where  the  good  J.  B.  Balfour  had  got  Sir  Henry  and  my- 
self to  some  kind  of  big  demonstration.  It  was  at  that 
meeting  perhaps  that  I  spoke  of  him  as  reminding  me  of 
the  Spanish  proverb,  "  '  Virtue  in  the  middle/  as  the  Devil 
said  when  he  sat  between  two  lawyers !  >:  Anyhow,  we 
had  a  rollicking  evening,  and  where  do  you  think  we 
spent  the  night?  Why,  at  Mr.  Forrester  Paton's  beau- 
tiful home.  Little  did  I  think  then  that  that  fine  fellow 
the  eldest  son  was  to  run  away  with  one  of  my  own 
daughters. 

Sir  Henry  enjoyed  Inglewood.  For  one  thing — and 
that  was  noticeable  both  in  London  and  at  Belmont — he 
always  loved  comfort,  warmth,  good  pictures,  and,  with 
these  and  good  fellowship  around  him,  his  geniality  had 
an  easy  flow. 

It  was  this  simplicity  of  character,  directness  of  vision, 
and  extraordinary  toleration  even  in  listening  to  weaker 


SIR   H.   CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN      237 

and  more  showy  men,  that  concealed  from  them  and  from 
the  public  both  his  scholarship  and  his  strength.  He  saw 
affectation  through  and  through,  but  he  viewed  it  without 
vindictiveness  and  with  a  kind  of  amused  sense  that  a  man 
who  could  show  off  in  that  fashion  was  really  a  better  man 
than  all  that,  if  he  would  only  give  himself  a  chance.  For 
the  rest,  including  men's  weaknesses  and  their  varieties  of 
view,  the  warmth  of  his  heart  gave  them  a  place  in  his 
scheme  of  things;  and  in  the  later  years  of  his  life,  when 
great  responsibilities  rested  upon  him  and  the  load  of 
domestic  sorrow  was  hard  to  bear,  the  stability,  as  I  happen 
to  know,  of  his  faith  in  things  unseen  upheld  him  in  a  kind 
of  brave  dignity  that  made  one  bow  the  head  in  sheer  and 
reverent  respect. 

More  than  once  I  have  heard  men  in  his  presence 
venture,  for  instance,  upon  literary  topics,  and  find,  from 
a  question  put  to  them  in  almost  a  casual  manner — find 
with  an  almost  dazed  surprise — that  they  were  talking  to 
an  expert. 

He  had  what  I  might  call  a  retentive  vision  for  the 
characters  of  living  men,  and  his  judgment  was  often  not 
one  that  would  have  been  shared  by  public  opinion  at 
large.  For  instance,  I  have  heard  him  place  Gallifet  as 
in  the  first  rank,  in  his  opinion,  of  talented,  efficient 
Frenchmen. 

I  hardly  like,  even  to  you,  to  tell  you  how  severe  he  was 
when  he  met  with  anything  that  did  not  savour  of  straight 
dealing,  but  I  shall  never  forget  how,  looking  across  at 
the  Government  front  bench,  he  went  on  judging  men 
by  honesty.  That  was  always  his  touchstone,  and  he 
said  to  me  : 

"  Look,  Thomas,  at  that  man  over  there.     He  should 


238  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

lead  the  Tory  party.  He  is  of  the  old  school, 
but  the  true  Tory  school.  He  is  a  capital  Parliamen- 
tarian and  he  is  an  honest,  straight  man.  I  like  Walter 
Long." 

In  his  house  you  could  almost  make  a  sure  find  in  the 
latest  and  best  of  the  only  two  literatures,  French  and 
English,  which  I  was  able  to  take  stock  of.  But  he 
himself  was  what  I  may  call  a  capacious  reader. 
Nothing  came  amiss  to  him,  apparently,  even  in  Italian 
and  German  as  well  as  French;  and  this  habit  of 
getting  to  the  heart  of  books  very  pleasantly  filled  up 
his  life. 

I  have  to  confess  to  you,  Isabel,  that  he  was  a  little 
impatient  of  some  of  the  modern  Scotch  literature — im- 
patient, that  is,  in  one  particular.  He  seemed  to  think 
that  those  writers  who  developed  their  representations  of 
Scotch  character  attempted  too  much  to  make  a  dramatic 
essay  of  whatever  in  it  would  appear  odd  and  grotesque 
or  even  uncouth,  and  that  for  the  paltry  purpose  of  tickling 
or  of  truckling  to  the  Southron.  He  looked  upon  this  as 
a  kind  of  unfaithfulness  to  truth,  and  in  this  I  most  heartily 
agreed  with  him,  down  to  the  last  word;  he  could  little 
indeed  abide  Scotchmen  who  sold  their  own  characteristics 
in  a  market  of  curios  for  the  English  or  American  buyer. 
No  one  knew  better  than  he  that  the  real  Scotland  was 
not  there,  but  was  in  a  world  where  the  realities  were 
sterner  and  the  sympathies  were  tenderer  and  the  drolleries 
were  pure  and  crystal  clear. 

I  shall  not  name  names,  but  I  could  well  have  imagined 
him  on  the  verge  of  wrath  at  any  Play  with  squalid  repre- 
sentations of  Scotch  festivities  and  habits  and  with  family 
worship  conducted  on  the  stage  amid  the  giggles  of  the 


SIR   H.   CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN      239 

vulgar.  Was  there  ever  any  such  Play?  I  am  afraid 
there  was.  And  when  I  saw  it  I  felt  glad  that  one  great 
Scotchman  had  passed  from  the  scene. 

These  private  affairs  were  all  of  a  piece,  mark  you,  with 
the  solid  principles  of  his  public  life.  I  call  him  "  Mr. 
Honesty."  Sometimes,  when  he  was  breasting  a  passion- 
ate and  contemptuous  opposition,  I  called  him  "  Mr.  Great- 
heart."  People  wondered  at  his  influence;  but  character 
always  tells ;  and  the  adhesion  of  many  to  him,  when  there 
occurred  those  '  Temptations  in  the  Wilderness "  of 
which  I  have  spoken  to  you  in  previous  letters,  arose  from 
these  two  things — first,  that  people  liked  his  downrightness 
and  courage;  and,  secondly,  for  and  because  they  loved 
him  so. 

Once  at  Belmont  your  mother  and  I  were  his  guests, 
the  only  other  guest  being  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 
I  watched  those  two  Scotchmen  with  much  interest.  I 
broke  suddenly  in  upon  them  deep  in  a  conclave  in  the 
library,  but  I  quickly  made  myself  scarce.  I  thought  at 
the  time  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  match  such  a  pair. 
Both  of  them  sturdy,  scholarly,  serious,  Christian,  Scotch- 
men, with  shrewdness  and  goodness  and  strength,  and  all 
in  a  capital  physical  frame.  As  I  observed  them  I  could 
almost  fancy  that  the  one  was  quite  deliberately  taking 
the  measure  of  the  other  and  that  the  other  was  quite 
deliberately  aware  of  it.  That  the  Prime  Minister  thought 
that  the  Archbishop  was  his  match  in  shrewdness  rather 
appeared  from  this  :  I  cast  a  fly  over  him  after  the  Primate 
left,  as  to  his  view  about  the  departing  guest;  but  very 
properly  he  gave  me  no  satisfaction — except  this,  by  the 
way,  that  he  said  to  me  : 
"  The  old  grey  horse." 


240  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

I  said,  "  What  do  you  mean  by  that?  "  And  then  he 
told  me  a  story  about  real  sagacity,  the  story  of  a  bishop 
who  visited  his  diocese  for  the  first  time  and  was  introduced 
to  his  clergy,  displaying  extraordinary  knowledge  of  their 
separate  peculiarities  and  habits.  To  the  infinite  delight 
of  one,  he  said  :  "  And  how  is  the  old  grey  horse  ?  " 
After  the  reception  was  over,  he  was  asked  about  this, 
and  explained  that  he  had  seen  a  few  grey  hairs  on  the 
coat  of  the  worthy  clergyman  and  felt  pretty  sure  that 
he  had  ridden  across  on  the  animal  described.  That 
was  all  the  light  that  I  got  from  the  Premier  about  the 
Primate  ! 

He  nursed  a  curious  idea  as  he  went  about  on  his  lawn, 
namely,  that  the  trees  and  he  used  to  speak  to  each  other ; 
and  he  encouraged  this  whimsical  notion  until  you  almost 
thought  he  was  serious.  In  the  evenings  he  joined  in  all 
the  games  going,  and  I  remember  well  one  scene  round 
a  billiard-table  where  he  and  some  very  distinguished 
statesmen  were  gathered  by  your  daring  sister  Elsie,  and 
he  roystered  with  the  rest  in  the  heartiest  merriment. 

Of  a  Sunday  he  would  tell  me  to  be  decent  and  go 
down  to  the  Established  Kirk  and  sit  in  his  seat  "  in  the 
briest  o'  the  laft." 

Underneath  all  this  exterior  gaiety  I  think  that  the 
dangers  and  disloyalties  to  the  good  Liberalism  which  he 
sincerely  loved  were  gall  and  wormwood  to  his  heart  and 
mind.  He  was  a  true  inheritor  of  the  Gladstone  tradition, 
with  that  noble  admixture  of  the  Bright  and  Cobden 
doctrine  that  the  principles  of  character  in  a  good,  straight 
man  were  those  that  should  be  the  principles  of  character 
in  a  good,  straight  nation.  Here,  for  instance,  is  a  letter 
which  I  think  I  ought  to  write  out  for  you  in  full.  He  was 


SIR    HENRY    CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN. 


SIR   H.    CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN      241 

coming  to  stay  with  us  in  Edinburgh  for  some  Convention 
in  that  metropolis,  and  this  is  what  he  wrote  to  me  : 

"  Belmont  Castle, 
"Meigle. 

"  January  17,  1901. 
"  MY  DEAR  SHAW, 

"  Your  hospitable  purposes  are  all  too  generous.  I  shall  be 
delighted  to  come  early  as  you  suggest  on  the  29th. 

"  The  cloud  over  South  Africa  looks,  to  my  view,  blacker 
than  ever.  This  time  last  year  the  dangers  were  military,  and 
we  believed  that  sooner  or  later  we  should  overcome  them. 
Now,  they  are  partly  military  and  partly  political,  and  what  is 
good  for  the  one  is  bad  for  the  other.  It  is  not  by  force 
of  arms  that  South  Africa  will  be  lost,  but  by  misgovernment ; 
and  instead  of  blustering  about  reinforcements  and  Army  re- 
form, or,  shall  we  say,  platitudinizing  about  commercial  educa- 
tion, it  would  be  well  if  our  eminent  ones  applied  themselves  to 
this  problem — How  to  make  those  love  us  who  now  hate  us. 

"A  fine  New  Year's  sentiment,  if  ever  there  was  one  ! 

"Yours, 

"H.  C.-B." 

Many  a  time  in  the  years  since  then  I  have  thought  of 
that  sentence — "  How  to  make  those  love  us  who  now  hate 
us."  It  is  the  pure  gold  of  statesmanship. 

Your  loving 

FATHER. 


BELMONT  CASTLE 
MEIGLE 


\f^u^ 


™- 


* 


,    /fot* 


LETTER   XXXVI 

SNOWED   UNDER 

House  of  Lords. 

November  13,  1920. 
MY  DEAREST, 

I  find  that  this  morning  I  had  put  the  little  bundle  of 
letters  that  I  spoke  of  in  my  pocket,  and,  although  we 
have  had  a  long  day  hearing  very  learned  men  speak,  and 
following  their  subtleties,  so  beautifully  wound  together, 
I  should  like  to  ease  my  mind  before  I  leave  the  precincts 
of  the  Palace.  I  wish  to  let  you  see  what  was  the  style 
of  our  dear  friend,  whom  we  came  to  love  so  well  for 
his  warm-hearted  interest  in  every  one  of  us.  And  I 
should  like  also  to  show  you  how  he  looked  at  life,  without 
any  round-about  argufying  in  his  mind,  but  with  a  plain, 
clear  vision  of  great,  straight  truths. 

You  must  know,  by  the  way,  that  in  the  year  1900 — of 
course  you  will  remember  it — there  was  a  famous  General 
Election.  It  was  called  the  "  Khaki  "  Election.  It  was 
astutely  managed ;  the  time  for  it  was  adroitly  chosen,  on 
the  ground  that  the  war  was  substantially  over,  that  it  was 
only,  as  one  eminent  person  said,  "  a  sort  of  a  war  "  that 
remained.  That  made  a  good  cry  for  continuing  the 
Government  in  office  in  order,  don't  you  see?  to  complete 
the  policy  to  which  the  war  had  led  up. 

If  not  that,  why  then  this,  that  even  though  the  war  was 
still  going  on,  would  it  not  be  an  outrage  on  all  political 

244 


SNOWED  UNDER  245 

propriety  to  have  horses  swopped  in  the  middle  of  the 
stream?  So,  mark  you,  the  Government  won  on  this 
version  of  it  too,  because  they  ought  at  least  to  be  allowed 
to  complete  the  war  itself. 

A  great  science,  electioneering  !  And  Liberalism,  poor 
thing !  was  snowed  under.  Worse  than  that :  here  was  a 
great  party  in  the  State,  even  if  not  snowed  under,  likely 
to  all  appearance  to  fall  to  pieces  by  internal  disruption. 
Smaller  and  smaller  grew  the  ranks  (within  Parliament, 
that  is  to  say)  of  those  who  were  root  and  branch  in  favour 
of  its  ancient  creed.  As  for  Militarism,  the  Tory  party 
was  completely  at  its  mercy;  and  the  result  of  the  1900 
election  justified  its  highest  hopes. 

What  was  to  be  done?  Why,  my  dear,  just  this — to 
Stick  to  one's  principles,  to  refuse  all  truckling  and  all 
compromise,  and  to  go  on  fighting  to  the  last  man.  In  all 
my  conversations  with  Sir  Henry  Campbell-Bannerman, 
I  never  heard  any  other  note  than  that;  and  there  never 
came  from  his  lips  any  suggestion  of  compromising  or 
bartering  on  such  major  topics  of  the  hour  as  Ireland,  or 
Africa,  or  Protection  in  any  shape  or  form. 

Now  for  the  bundle.  I  had  been  fighting — we  all  had 
been  fighting — for  our  lives;  and  my  majority  of  500  went 
down  to  200.  Shortly  thereafter  I  received  the  following 
letter : 

"  Belmont  Castle, 

"  Meigle. 

"October  17,  1900. 
"  MY  DEAR  SHAW, 

"We  mariners  who  have  survived  the  storm,  now  that  we 
have  dried  our  clothes  and  swallowed  a  dram,  may  begin  to  rub 
the  salt  out  of  our  eyes  and  look  about  us. 

"What  think  ye  of  Caledonia?     '  Stands  Scotland  where 


246  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

she  did  ?  '  as  Shakespeare  and  Charles  Parker  have  asked.  Is 
it  not  deplorable  ?  In  my  Burghs  my  falling-off  is  mainly  due 
to  the  Irish  turning  against  me  on  the  Education  question  :  not 
unnaturally,  for  I  should  be  sorry  to  agree  with  them.  But  it 
makes  a  big  difference  if  we  do  not  get  votes  from  the  Protestant 
and  anti-sectarian  side  to  balance  them. 

"The  same  thing  happened,  I  am  told,  elsewhere  :  e.g., 
Bridgeton  and  Dumbartonshire. 

"  But  there  was  a  lot  of  Khaki  in  it,  too  :  and  we  made  a 
mistake  in  holding  our  tongues  last  winter  when  men  were 
taking  up  their  line  on  the  war. 

"  Now,  is  it  Imperialism  or  the  other  thing  that  has  counted 
for  safety? 

*  *  *  *  * 

"  I  do  not  see  anything  very  clear  from  the  pure  electioneer- 
ing point  of  view. 

***** 

"Yours  always, 

"H.  C.-B." 

This  ^azed  condition  did  not  last  long.  As  he  emerged 
from  it  he  wrote  to  me  that  letter  of  the  i;th  January,  1900, 
which  I  call  the  "  golden  letter  "  and  which  I  sent  to  you 
a  short  time  ago.  It  showed  that  his  vision  had  resumed 
its  normal  clarity. 

Yes,  indeed,  this  was  the  man  for  me  to  follow. 
He  was  by  this  time,  however,  I  sometimes  thought, 
beginning  to  show  signs  of  extreme  strain.  He  was 
not  robust :  still  less  so  was  his  wife ;  and  his  tender 
care  for  her  shone  in  all  his  arrangements  and  at  many 
turns  of  his  conversation.  He  shirked  meetings :  here  is 
a  letter,  for  instance,  in  which  he  implored  me  to  go 
and  speak  for  him  at  Dunfermline;  and  you  will  see  the 
beginning  of  illness  from  which  I  do  not  think  he  ever 
recovered. 


SNOWED   UNDER  247 

"6,  Grosvenor  Place,  S.W . 

March  23,  1901. 
"  MY  DEAR  SHAW, 

"Scripture,  like  Homer,  sometimes  nods;  and  it  makes  a 
mistake  on  that  point  of  prophets  having  no  honour  in  their 
own  country.  There  are  exceptions,  and  you  are  one.  Read 
the  enclosed  "  (a  letter  from  his  chairman)  "which  I  thoroughly 
endorse.  I  am  sure  the  Dunfermline  people  would  rise  like  one 
man  to  receive  you — but  there  would  be  more  than  one  man 
there.  And,  politically,  the  embers  are  sound  and  living,  but 
they  would  be  all  the  better  of  being  blown  upon,  if  you  could 
undertake  to  act  as  bellows. 

"  Unfortunately,  I  am  forbidden  to-day  by  my  doctor  to  under- 
take my  meeting  and  speech  on  the  27th.  I  have  been  rather 
'  run  down  ?  for  some  time  and  have  been  more  or  less  laid  up 
with  a  cold  which  does  not  give  way.  He  allows  me  to  attend 
(with  due  precautions  and  limitations)  to  Parliamentary  work, 
but  he  now  positively  forbids  the  journey  and  the  big  meeting. 
I  do  not  know  what  can  be  done.  Sinclair,  poor  man,  has  to 
patch  something  up.  I  am  exceedingly  sorry  to  cause  dis- 
appointment. 

"This  is  a  very  critical  time,  too,  and  my  proper  place  is 
in  the  House  of  Commons.  Still,  I  would  have  run  down  one 
day  and  returned  the  next  if  I  could  have  safely  done  it. 

"Yours, 

"H.  C.-B." 

He  stayed  with  us  on  several  occasions  in  Edinburgh 
in  the  subsequent  years,  and  there  are  charming  letters  in 
the  bundle  showing  the  interest  he  took  in  all  of  you. 


In  a  little  while  the  Liberal  Party,  small,  but  banding 
itself  together  under  his  leadership,  began  to  make  its  mark 
in  public  discussions,  and  some  of  these  letters  will  make, 
I  suppose,  good  stuff  for  his  biographer.  We  shall  see. 
I  had,  for  instance,  been  writing  to  him  in  the  beginning 


248  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

of  1903,  suggesting  certain  amendments  to  the  Address  at 
the  Opening  of  Parliament.     Here  is  a  bit  of  what  he 

wrote  in  reply : 

"Lord  Warden  Hotel, 
"Dover. 

"January  6,  1903. 
"Mr  DEAR  SHAW, 

"  I  was  delighted  to  receive  your  letter  and  your  suggestions 
as  to  action  in  the  House. 

41 1  was  in  London  yesterday  for  a  meeting  we  had  summoned 
of  the  supreme  wisdom ;  and  all  its  elements  seem  well  charged 
with  energy,  and  their  respective  winds  apparently  blowing  the 
same  way. 

"The  situation  is  delicate,  for  which  we  must  refuse  all  com- 
promise, disregard  results,  challenge  divisions,  smite  and  spare 
not — we  cannot  despise  the  help  of  the  timorous  and  forlorn 
free  fooder,  and  they  are  of  the  race  of  coney  and  easily  scared. 

"There  are  fifty-three  of  them  of  all  sorts,  but  we  are  advised 
that  of  these  only  five  can  be  reckoned  on  to  vote  even  on  free 
food  against  the  superlative  Government :  these  are  indeed 
valuable  allies. 

"i  was  glad  to  find  that  our  friends,  though  anxious  to  make 
things  easy  for  them,  have  not  a  notion  of  yielding  anything 
or  of  spoiling  any  chance  for  their  sake. 

***** 

"My  wife  is  getting  along,  but  it  is  a  slow  business. 
"  Kindest  remembrances  to  Mrs.  Shaw. 

"Yours, 

"H.  C.-B." 

Things  undoubtedly  were  moving.  You  can  see  it  in 
the  tone  of  his  letters.  Here  is  a  long  eight-page  one, 
for  instance,  which  deals  in  his  firm,  illuminating  way 
with  a  wide  variety  of  political  topics.  As  I  have  been 
troubling  you  with  the  African  thing,  that  is  the  only  one 
of  these  topics  which  I  will  show  you  his  mind  upon. 
Anyhow,  this  is  how  it  goes  : 


SNOWED   UNDER  249 

"Belmont  Castle, 
"Meigle. 

"September  10,  1903. 
"MY  DEAR  SHAW, 

"A  scratch  of  your  pen  is  grateful. 

"I  think  the  Dunfermline  people  have  not  made  a  bad  fixture 

for  the  opening  of  their  Club  :    November  2,   afternoon  diet, 

me  in  the  chair  as  President  (an*  wha  daur  say  nay  ?),  and  you 

making  an  oration.    Admirable  !     Do  not  for  any  sake  cry  off. 

**-*** 

"We  have  a  lively  winter  before  us." 

Then  comes  his  catalogue  of  public  issues,  and  he 
proceeds  : 

"(c)  Our  old  friend  South  Africa.  Do  you  notice  that  little 
Harry  Johnston  (ex-East  Africa  and  Uganda),  an  Empire- 
builder  of  the  first  water,  Imperialist  sans  reproche,  has  been 
saying  at  Rochester  that  it  was  Joe's  bungling  that  caused  the 
South  African  War? 

"The  remarkable  thing  is,  not  that  he  should  think  so,  but 
that  he  should  think  it  conducive  (or  at  least  not  hurtful)  to 
his  success  to  proclaim  it.  He  need  never  have  said  a  word 
about  it.  This  shows  his  estimate  at  least  of  present  public 
feeling. 

"How  every  word  you  and  I  have  said  is  confirmed  as 
true  I  Are  we  ever  to  be  allowed  to  say  so  ? 

"(d)  Elgin's  Report.    Now  here  is  a  trap  opened  for  us. 

"I  see  in  the  papers  that  the  Liberal  Leaguers  are  going 
to  dance  a  fandango  over  it,  and  trot  out  the  old  fire-escapes, 
efficiency,  lack  of  foresight,  etc.,  etc.  .  .  .  We  shall,  of  course, 
denounce  stupidity,  recklessness,  carelessness,  wherever  we  see 
it,  and  there  is  a  lot  of  it  exposed.  But  we  do  not  want  to 
militarize  our  people  or  our  policy,  and  that  is  what  these 
people  aim  at.  Don't  have  wars;  have  them  only  on  a  scale 
within  your  means;  above  all,  don't  teach  our  people  to  think 
that  military  drill  and  military  power  are  the  chief  end  of  man. 
Don't  give  the  cat  the  cream  to  keep;  don't  let  the  Army 
dictate  to  us.  Keep  its  government  in  the  old  constitutional 


250  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

civilian  hands,  which  the  Duke  of  Wellington  himself  thought 
essential. 

"  In  this  war  the  crime  was  in  the  war  itself,  in  the  proceed- 
ings that  brought  it  on,  in  the  tone  of  our  policy.  The  question 
of  men  enough,  of  guns  enough,  or  good  or  bad  generals — 
these  are  subordinate  questions,  which  are  to  be  exaggerated 
with  a  view  to  putting  upon  us  huge  military  establishments, 
preposterous  preparations,  and  the  subordination  of  everything 
to  military  needs  when  we  ought  to  be  freer  from  that  curse 
than  any  nation  in  Europe. 

"(How  is  that  for  a  letting-off  of  steam  ?) 

"Enfin,  a  nice  kettle  of  fish  all  round. 

*  *  *  *  * 

"Yours, 

"H.  C.-B." 

His  verdicts  upon  his  colleagues  were  shrewd  and 
kindly  always.  Hear  this,  for  instance,  of  Sir  William 
Harcourt,  which  he  wrote  to  me  from  Vienna _: 

"Hotel  Kranz, 

"Wien,  i., 

11  Neuer  Markt  5. 

"October  2,  1904. 
"  MY  DEAR  SHAW, 

"Your  letter  has  come  circuitously  to  hand,  and  it  breathes 
the  kindness  of  Mrs.  Shaw  and  her  man. 

*  #  *  #  * 

"Late  last  night  I  heard  that  poor  old  W.  V.  H.  was  gone, 
and  we  are  much  grieved.  He  was  a  good  friend  to  our 
friends  and  to  the  right  cause ;  and  I  am  glad  he  has  made  an 
exit,  when  he  had  to  go,  so  stately  and  well  ordered.  We  shall 
miss  him  sorely,  for  he  was  a  terror  to  (domestic)  evil-doers, 
though  sometimes  a  thorn  in  the  flesh  to  those  who  do  well. 

*  *  *  *  « 

"With  our  kindest  regards, 

"Yours  always, 

"H.  C.-B." 


SNOWED   UNDER  251 

I  feel  almost  tempted  to  go  out  of  my  dates  to  quote 
to  you  one  hearty  commendation  which  he  wrote  to  me 
about  Mr.  Ure,  the  Solicitor-General  for  Scotland,  whose 
invaluable  help  and  services  I  shall  never  forget.  Ure 
was  unworthily  treated  in  later  days  by  Mr.  Arthur  Balfour, 
but  he  defended  himself  in  the  House  of  Commons  in  a 
speech  so  convincing  and  masterly  as  to  demand  very 
much  more  in  the  nature  of  apology  than  he  ever  received. 
Sir  Henry  had  a  truer  knowledge  of  human  nature,  and 
Ure  will  forgive  me,  I  am  sure,  if  I  quote  these  sentences 
from  an  amusing  letter  talking  about  our  Abercromby 
Place  family,  which  he  wound  up  thus : 

"Belmont  Castle, 

"  Meigle,  Scotland. 

"MY  DEAR  SHAW,  "January  9,  1907. 

*  *  #  *  * 

"As  to  Ure,  he  is  what  in  my  antediluvian  youth  we  used 
to  call  '  a  brick  ' — a  good,  square,  adaptable,  reliable,  water- 
proof and  ornamental  man. 

"Remember  me  to  all  your  next  generation,  and,  if  you 
have  anything  over,  throw  in  the  head  of  the  house. 

"Always  yours, 

"H.  C.-B." 

I  think  that  I  must  reserve,  however,  these  letters  until 
I  tell  you  of  an  interview  I  had  with  Sir  Henry  after  the 
General  Election  of  1905,  when  Liberalism  regained  its 
power  and  when  he  was  swept  by  acclamation  into  the 
position  of  Prime  Minister. 

Meantime,  I  am  off.  We  shall  meet  at  the  "  Old  Vic  " 
and  hear  the  laughter  of  simple  people  and  note  how  they 
know  already  almost  by  heart  the  turns  and  finer  passages 
of  As  You  Like  It.  Your  loving 

FATHER. 


LETTER    XXXVII 

THE    STRANGE    WILL 

9,  Bolton  Gardens,  SW.$. 

June  29,  1890. 
MY  OWN  ISABEL, 

I  know  quite  well  what  you  are  thinking.  You  are 
thinking  that  all  these  accounts  and  stories  of  doings 
in  Church  and  State  are  right  enough,  but,  "  Father,  am 
I  never  to  hear  anything  about  the  law,  and  cases,  and 
the  Parliament  House  of  Edinburgh?" 

Well,  you  see,  the  law  was  my  living :  these  other 
things,  the  movements  of  public  affairs,  they  were  my  life. 
Yet  the  law  was  no  morose  or  jealous  mistress,  and  was 
far,  far  better  to  me  than  such  a  wayward  lover  deserved. 
But  to  fit  in  these  two  ends  of  existence,  the  life  and  the 
living,  when  between  them  there  ran  a  railway  track  of 
400  miles,  needed  some  engineering  and  not  a  little  loss 
of  sleep.  As  I  once  told  you,  I  think,  in  the  Session 
before  I  became  Lord  Advocate  I  travelled  on  that  track, 
mostly  by  night,  a  distance  equal  to  the  circumference  of 
the  Earth. 

Let  me  compromise.  You  heard  from  me  one  or  two 
incidents  of  the  earlier  legal  years  :  then  comes  that  long, 
steady  pull  of  which  the  memory  retains  so  little :  but 
now  will  you  be  satisfied  if  I  give  you,  say,  a  couple  of 
stories  from  my  closing  years  at  the  Bar? 

Life  at  the  Bar  and  life  in  the  Commons  have  between 
them  this  curious  contrast.  At  the  Bar  you  pass  from 

252 


THE  STRANGE   WILL  253 

gravity  and  anxiety  into  familiarity,  and  thence  to  a  sense 
of  buoyancy,  exhilaration,  and  even  gaiety.  Whereas  in 
the  Commons  you  pass  from  buoyancy,  exhilaration,  and 
even  gaiety,  into  familiarity  and  then  to  anxiety  and 
gravity.  What  a  roundabout  way  this  is  of  saying  that  in 
the  one  you  pass  "  from  grave  to  gay,"  and  in  the  other 
"  from  lively  to  severe." 

Having  thus  warned  you  not  to  expect  too  serious 
matter,  I  proceed  with  my  cases. 

One  was  what  was  known  as  the  Thorns  case.  Thorns, 
a  man  of  considerable  means,  had  been  for  many  years 
Sheriff  of  the  Orkneys  and  Shetland,  and  he  died  after  a 
life  of  not  a  little  eccentricity,  leaving  a  rather  peculiar 
will.  This  will  was  hotly  contested  by  his  relatives,  and 
I  had  to  maintain  against  them  that  the  quondam  sheriff 
was  of  sound  disposing  mind. 

Some  of  the  most  peculiar  things  he  did  were,  in  point 
of  fact,  not  brought  out  in  evidence,  as,  for  instance,  that, 
instead  of  reversing  his  substitute's  judgments,  he  had 
sometimes  scored  them  out  sheet  after  sheet,  and  put  in 
judgments  of  his  own  ! 

Some  of  the  things  that  were  brought  out  were  odd 
enough.  In  his  bachelor  household  he  kept  with  great 
care  a  book  of  fines,  and  when  any  accident  happened  the 
delinquent  domestic  was  marked  down  as  fined  a  penny 
or  twopence;  but  the  cat  also  was  among  the  number  of 
delinquents,  and  he  frequently  fined  the  cat ! 

Things  began  to  look  critical  for  the  will,  and  one  of 
the  oddest  facts  was  brought  out,  viz.,  that  the  learned 
man  had  an  hallucination  that  he  was  the  Chief  of  the  Clan 
MacThomas.  What  was  to  be  done  with  the  like  of 
that? 


254  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

I  set  about  looking  into  old  books,  and  to  my  astonish- 
ment I  found  that  there  had  been  a  Clan  MacThomas. 
Thereupon  I  eked  out  the  argument  with  the  story,  which 
I  thought  I  was  safe  to  tell,  there  being  a  MacDonald 
on  the  bench.  So  I  narrated  to  the  jury — MacDonald 
gravely  listening  and  wondering  what  it  was  all  coming 
to — how  once,  when  you  were  all  little,  I  had  stayed  in 
Kingussie,  where  there  were  two  bankers,  one  of  the  name 
of  MacPherson  and  the  other  of  the  name  of  Macintosh. 

The  dispute  between  the  MacPhersons  and  the 
Macintoshes  was,  of  course,  the  famous  question  all  over 
the  Highlands  as  to  who  was  the  head  of  the  Clan  Chattan. 
The  vigour  of  the  Macintoshes  was  well  known.  They 
carried  into  argument  their  warlike  propensities,  which  are 
made  immortal  in  the  lines : 

41  Of  all  the  clans  MacKay 

She  is  the  most  ferocious, 
Excepting  juist  forbye 
The  Shaws  and  Macintoshes." 

"  Well,"  said  I,  "  these  bankers  came  to  me  as  a  lawyer 
and  they  put  the  case  before  me  for  my  opinion,  the  one 
maintaining  that  the  head  of  the  Clan  was  MacPherson  of 
Cluny,  and  the  other  that  the  head  was  the  Macintosh  of 
Macintosh.  Now  if  a  man,"  said  I,  "  is  not  of  sound  dis- 
posing mind  because  he  thinks  himself  the  head  of  the 
Clan,  where  would  any  of  us  be  who  is  of  Highland  ex- 
traction ?  As  for  these  disputants,  I  took  time  to  consider, 
and  then  I  gave  my  opinion.  I  advised  that  the  Mac- 
Phersons and  the  Macintoshes  were  both  minor  sects  of 
the  Clan  Chattan,  and  that  the  headship  of  the  Clan  was 
with  the  Shaws  !  " 

There  was  a  roar  from  the  Court,  but  the  Judge,  gather- 


THE   STRANGE   WILL  255 

ing  himself  together,  ordered  immediate  silence,  and  the 
case  proceeded  to  its  close,  with  considerable  splutterings 
here  and  there. 

I  do  not  ask  you  to  believe  that  it  was  all  fun.  Indeed, 
you  may  be  interested  to  hear  this  about  the  same  case  : 
The  bulk  of  the  learned  sheriff's  money  had  gone  past 
his  relatives  and  was  dedicated  to  the  restoration  of  the 
Cathedral  of  Kirkwall. 

Now  you  have  heard  me  before  say  what  a  spurious 
reputation  advocates  are  apt  to  get  because  they  spring 
upon  the  public  things  that  look  so  learned  or  so  clever, 
but  are  not  theirs  at  all,  but  probably  suggested  by  a 
shrewd  solicitor.  Here  was  another  case  of  it.  The 
solicitor  said  to  me  that  in  regard  to  this  benefaction, 
which  of  course  was  denounced  as  futile  and  silly  and 
unpractical  and  all  the  rest  of  it,  he  thought  that  Sir  Walter 
Scott  favoured  the  like  of  that  in  "  The  Pirate."  So, 
sure  enough,  I  fished  up  "  The  Pirate,"  and  I  read  to 
the  jury  that  passage  in  the  fine  novel  which  commends 
the  restoration  of  St.  Magnus  Cathedral  as  one  well  worthy 
of  the  benefactions  of  any  wealthy  or  patriotic  son  of 
the  North.  The  passage  directly  bore  upon  the  issue  in 
hand;  it  affected  the  bulk  of  the  estate,  and,  to  make  a 
long  story  short,  the  jury  upheld  the  will. 

Perhaps  the  fun,  but  certainly  the  literary  allusion, 
helped  them  on  the  right  road,  because  that  it  was  a  sound 
verdict  I  do  not  doubt. 


Just  let  me  give  you  another  instance  of  how  admirably 
the  Scotch  solicitors  do  their  task  and  of  how  little  and  how 
seldom  they  get  the  proper  credit  for  it. 


256  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

I  quite  forget  the  name  of  the  case  :  but  at  all  events 
there  was  one  witness  in  the  box,  and  sure  was  I  that  he 
was  lying — lying  cleverly,  deliberately,  steadily.  But  there 
was  no  chink  in  his  armour  that  I  could  see.  Part  of 
his  story  was  that  a  certain  transaction,  of,  I  think,  a  com- 
mercial kind,  had  been  carried  out  between  him  and  his 
antagonist  on  a  certain  date,  that  he  had  taken  care  to  set 
it  down  on  paper  at  the  time,  and  that  from  that  date  the 
parties  had  shaped  their  relations  accordingly,  and 
that  he  was,  of  course,  right  in  his  demand  and  his 
opponent  was  wrong.  The  case  stood  to  win  or  to  lose 
upon  whether  that  man's  evidence  could  be  successfully 
upset. 

Then  the  solicitor,  a  painstaking,  wise  man,  very  honest 
and  very  thorough,  gave  me  the  hint,  for  which  I  got  all 
the  credit  and  for  which  I  deserved  none,  that  the  docu- 
ment which  the  witness  was  founding  upon  proved  that  he 
was  a  liar. 

'  Would  your  Lordship,"  said  I,  "  be  kind  enough  to 
look  at  the  document  ?  " 

The  Judge  did  so,  and  held  it  in  his  hand  while  I 
elicited  over  again  the  facts  as  to  the  date  and  circum- 
stances when  this  bargain  was  come  to,  making  the  whole 
story  clear  as  day,  the  witness  adding  at  each  stage  his 
oath  in  support.  The  dates  I  cannot  remember,  but  the 
fact  you  may  draw  from  this  illustration.  The  witness, 
we  shall  say,  described  a  day  in  June,  1890,  when  the 
paper  was  got  out  and  the  memorandum  made — all  in 
June,  1890. 

Said  I  to  the  Judge,  "  Would  your  Lordship  hold  that 
paper  against  the  light  ?  " — and  then  to  the  witness,  "  How 
do  you  explain,  sir,  that  this  memorandum,  which  you 


THE   STRANGE   WILL  257 

say  was  written  by  you   in  June,    1890,  was  made  upon 
paper  which  was  not  manufactured  till  the  year  1893?" 

The    water-mark    on    the    paper    broke    the    case    to 
pieces  ! 

Now  that  is  all  about  the  law  when  he  was  at  the  Bar 
that  you  will  ever  hear  from 

Your  most  devoted 

PARENT. 


LETTER    XXXVIII 
THE    MAKING    OF    A    MINISTRY 

9,  Bolton  Gardens,  SW  .^. 

November  17,  1920. 
MY  DEAR  LASS, 

This  library  here — thanks  to  your  enterprise — is  getting 
into  decent  order,  and  I  have  nothing  to  do  but  whip 
round  my  chair,  and  in  a  galaxy  of  little  drawers  I  select 
the  one  that  contains  Sir  Henry  Campbell-Bannerman's 
letters. 

The  tide  of  public  opinion  was  turning  his  way  :  What 
a  satisfaction  that  his  reward  was  coming !  Alas  !  the 
satisfaction  was  mingled  with  sadness,  for  just  at  that 
juncture  the  marks  of  his  failing  health  unmistakably 
appeared.  He  maintained  his  policy  undauntedly, 
sagaciously  unwinding  perplexities,  and  no  colleague  ever 
came  from  his  counsel  without  light;  but  it  was  touching 
to  observe  that  more  and  more  he  leaned  with  an  affec- 
tionate pressure  on  the  staff  of  private  friendship.  And 
his  humour  did  not  fail. 

He  did  love,  strange  to  say,  and  loved  passionately, 
whatever  combination  he  could  get  of  quiet  amid  the 
beauties  of  Nature  with  jollity  among  those  he  trusted. 
You  may  see  in  this  simple  letter  to  your  mother,  for 
instance,  how  the  mixture  works  out.  Private  kindness, 
affectionate  interest,  and,  over  all,  a  sharp  eye  to  public 
issues. 

258 


THE   MAKING   OF   A   MINISTRY        259 

"  Belmont  Castle, 

"  Meigle, 

"Scotland. 
"December  i,  1904. 
"DEAR  MRS.  SHAW, 

"If  you  and  your  goodman  and  your  daughter  could  come 
to  us  on  the  i6th  till  the  Monday  following  it  would  be 
a  real  pleasure,  and  I  hope  by  good  luck  you  may  be  free; 
but  I  know  that  your  metropolitan  gaieties  are  many,  and  we 
poor  country  mice  are  out  of  it.  Do  come  if  you  can,  and  if 
you  brought  your  Oxonian  our  pleasure  would  be  still  greater. 
We  cannot  do  much  entertaining  on  the  grand  scale,  but  I 
would  gather  one  or  two  congenial  spirits. 

***** 

"With  our  kind  regards, 

"Yours  very  truly, 

"H.  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN. 

"Will  you  ask  your  authority  whether  the  Government  plan 
about  the  Churches  is  considered  likely  to  answer?  I  have  to 
speak  at  Dunfermline  in  a  few  days,  and  should  like  to  have 
his  mind  on  it." 

The  reference  to  the  Oxonian  is,  of  course,  to 
Alexander,  to  whom  he  was  always  kind.  In  an  un- 
guarded moment  he  had  promised  to  speak  at  the  Oxford 
Union  during  Alexander's  presidency.  He  tried  to  back 
out  :  but  was  held  to  his  bargain  and  went.  During  that 
visit  he  was  photographed,  the  result  being  more  of  the 
man  himself  in  his  comfortable  serenity  than  any  other 
likeness  that  had  ever  been  taken. 


Unionism  was  rocking  to  its  fall.  It  fought  tenaciously 
to  maintain  its  position,  and  it  had  within  it  a  great  store 
of  ability.  In  my  humble  sphere  of  the  Border  Burghs 


26o  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

it  never  wavered.  When  the  election  of  1905  came  on 
my  opponents  had  the  singular  good  fortune  of  securing 
Mr.  Conan  Doyle  as  their  candidate — a  gifted  man,  a 
clever  writer,  and  very  strongly  against  me  on  the  issues 
of  South  Africa  and  Ireland. 

On  the  latter  he  within  a  short  time  changed  his  mind 
and  became,  I  think,  an  out-and-out  Home  Ruler.  I  have 
sometimes  wondered  whether  Time — that  great  Illuminant 
— helped  him  towards  a  change  of  view  on  Africa  also. 
But  during  the  election  he  fought  with  vigour  and  emerged 
from  the  contest,  although  without  success,  yet  without  an 
enemy. 

I  was,  of  course,  in  London  in  those  days  of  agitation, 
when  Sir  Henry  Campbell-Bannerman  was  sent  for  by 
the  King;  and  I  heartily  enjoyed  the  comings  and  goings 
of  all  sorts  and  descriptions  of  expectants  and  aspirants. 

An  intensely  human  touch  there  was  in  their  confi- 
dences. More  than  one  of  that  class  I  have  in  my  mind  at 
this  moment,  for  I  recall  once  setting  on  them  as  follows  : 
:<  Will  you  men  remember  this,  that  we  cannot  all  be  in 
office  ?  There  is  ahead  of  us  possibly  success  and  possibly 
trial.  People  who  do  not  get  what  they  want  are  divided 
into  two  classes — the  first  are  the  sore  heads,  the  second 
are  the  stout  hearts."  This  sermon  was  of  the  genus 
"  popular,"  that  is  to  say,  one  which  is  severe  in  the 
application — but  the  application  is  always  to  the  other 
man  ! 

I  resolved  not  to  go  near  Sir  Henry.  But  as  time  went 
on  the  difficulty  was  whether  to  stop  the  habit  of  going 
to  talk  over  events  which  were  stirring,  or  to  keep  up 
going  under  a  kind  of  make-believe  that  there  was  nothing 
in  which  I  was  interested.  It  would  have  been  out  of  the 


THE   MAKING   OF   A   MINISTRY        261 

question  to  continue  that  too  long,  so  after  a  while  I  went 
in  one  afternoon  to  see  him.  It  appeared  that  all  the  time 
he  had  been  keeping  his  friendship  warm. 

After  the  interview  I  wrote  an  account  of  it,  so  to 
speak,  red-hot,  and  before  the  details  could  escape  my 
mind  —  wrote  it  down  in  a  long  letter  to  your  mother.  Her 
daily  letters  to  me  were  a  continual  strength  :  she  knew 
well  —  better  than  many  courtiers  —  the  currents  of  public 
events,  and  to  her  my  replies  at  times  of  crisis  were 
like  confidential  dispatches.  A  great  burning  out  of 
letters  took  place,  but  I  find  that  this  one  has  been 
preserved. 

Shall  I  let  you  see  that  letter?  Well,  it  reflects  no  dis- 
credit upon  anybody.  It  showed  Sir  Henry  Campbell- 
Bannerman  as  he  was,  and  how  he  comported  himself  at 
a  not  uncritical  turn  of  Imperial  history.  I  have  omitted 
a  few  words  here  and  there,  but  otherwise  you  may  take 
the  letter  to  be  almost  exactly  as  I  now  copy  it  out,  under- 
lining and  all. 

December  8,   1905. 


Then  to  Belgrave  Square,  which  I  reached  at  2.12.  One 
reporter  at  a  side  door  was  watching  and  timing,  and,  I  think, 
kodaking  the  proceedings. 

Sir  Henry  was  at  lunch,  but  Sinclair  came  and  took  me 
in  beside  him.  I  had  lunched,  but  I  took  a  glass  of  moselle 
and  sat  down  at  table.  This  morning  I  had  written  to  Buchanan 
to  tell  him  to  stand  firm,  so  I  was  relieved  to  hear  C.B.  break 
into  public  affairs  at  once.  I  had  shaken  him  warmly  by  the 
hand,  and  he  looked  at  me  comfortably  and  said,  "  Ah,  Thomas, 
it's  you." 

"Before  we  begin,"  said  I,  "how  is  her  Ladyship?  " 

"Never  was  better,"  he  said;  "she  likes  the  stir  —  no 
monotony  here,  I  assure  you.  That  poor  door-bell  !  ' 


262  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

My  anxiety  overnight  had  been  about  an  alleged  intrigue 
to  jockey  the  Prime  Minister  out  of  the  House  of  Commons 
and  into  the  Lords.  The  Times  confirmed  our  worst  fears 
by  declaring  that  Grey  had  declined  office  except  on  that: 
condition. 

C.B.  opened  by  saying,  "  Don't  believe  the  Times  news- 
paper !  " 

"  My  word!  "  I  said,  "I  am  glad.  To  be  frank  with 
you,  I  may  just  say  that  I  thought  they  were  hitting  you  at 
your  weakest  point — your  good  nature;  but — I  must  say  it — 
if  you  had  yielded,  the  country  would  have  thought  itself 
betrayed." 

After  a  little,  he  said  with  a  laugh,  "Do  you  know  it  was 
the  comicality  of  it  that  I  could  hardly  get  over.  They  were 
to  serve  under  me,  but  on  condition  that  they  were  not  to  be 
with  me  !  " 

By  this  time  the  bell  was  going,  and  he  said,  "Come!  " 
and  off  he  and  I  went  to  his  morning-room  and  sat  down 
together  side  by  side.  Then  he  opened  out : 

"You  know  it's  been  going  on  since  Monday.  The  three 
— Asquith,  Grey  and  Haldane — all  indicated  that  this  was  the 
condition.  But  Asquith  was  always  uneasy  :  he  walked  back 
and  forward  in  this  very  room  here,  and  he  stood  up  just  at  that 
mantelpiece  and  said  : 

" '  Here  we  are,  on  every  conceivable  point  of  policy  agreed, 
and  yet  somehow  something  wrong.  Suppose  I  go  down  to 
my  constituents,  and  they  say  to  me  :  "Would  you  tell  us,  were 
you  not  asked  to  be  in  the  Government?  "  and  I  reply,  "I 
was."  And  then  they  say,  "Did  you  not  get  a  good  enough 
offer?"  and  I  reply,  "Well,  the  fact  is,  I  was  offered  the 
Chancellorship  of  the  Exchequer !  "  And  then  they  say, 
"What's  wrong,  then?  "  and  I  say,  "Oh,  but  my  leader  was 
to  be  in  the  Commons !  "  How  shall  I  look  ?  Then  Grey 
goes,  and  he  has  to  confess  that  he  was  given  the  offer  of 
three  great  offices  and  got  the  one — the  Foreign  Office — which 
he  chose.  And  his  constituents  say,  "Well,  what  more  could 
you  want?  "  How  foolish  it  all  is!  And  Haldane  too.' 
*  *  *  *  * 

"Well,"  said  C.B.,  "this  thing  began  on  Monday;  and  I 
let  it  go  on  for  three  days;  and  then  I  said  to  each  and  all 


THE   MAKING   OF   A   MINISTRY        263 

of  them,  '  Now  look  here,  I  have  been  playing  up  till  now.' 
The  comicality  of  it,  as  I  say,  appealed  to  me.  '  But  now  let 
me  just  say — that  it  is  I  -who  am  the  head  of  this  Government: 
it  is  I  who  have  the  King's  Command:  I  am  on  horseback, 
and  you  will  be  all  pleased  to  understand  that  I  will  not  go  to 
the  House  of  Lords;  that  I  will  not  have  any  condition  of  the 
kind  imposed  upon  me,  that  you  must  take  your  own  course, 
on  that  footing.  Do  you  understand?  '  Grey  said,  '  I  cannot 
face  the  idea  of  Lord  Rosebery  attacking  a  Government  of 
which  I  am  a  member.'  "  As  C.B.  said  that  he  laughed  and 
said,  "  Dear  me,  you  are  a  man  of  distinction,  and  you  are 
going  to  be  swayed  by  another  man  to  a  course  which  you 
can't  openly  explain  in  any  sort  of  way  satisfactory  to  your- 
self !  " 

"So,"  says  C.B.,  "they  all  came  in — no  conditions;  no 
nothing:  there  they  are." 

Said  I,  "I  hear  that  Morley  has  caused  some  trouble.  Can 
that  be  true  ?  " 

"Not  true  at  all.  Asquith  is  to  be  Chancellor  of  the  Ex- 
chequer, Morley  goes  to  India,  Grey  to  the  Foreign  Office." 

"And  the  Colonies?."  I  asked. 

"Oh,  Elgin  to  the  Colonies.  Then  about  Haldane :  he 
takes  the  War  Office." 

"Now,  Tammas,"  he  said,  after  a  pause,  and  slowly  tapping 
my  knee:  "what  am  I  to  do  with  you,  my  son?  You  are 
putting  me  in  a  plisky." 

I  knew  what  he  meant.  The  letters  which  I  had  had  from 
Redmond  and  O'Connor  and  Dillon  had  very  strongly  placed 
the  Irish  Office  before  me,  but  I  was  afraid  to  appear  in  any 
way  to  have  a  wish  or  preference  on  my  own  part,  for  it  was 
his  judgment  I  wanted  to  get.  I  felt  that  he  knew  far  better 
than  I  did  what  was  for  the  best.  Had  he  lifted  his  finger 
and  pointed  me  to  Ireland,  like  a  shot  I  would  have  gone 
there,  never  doubting  his  judgment.  Then,  after  a  little,  he 
said  : 

"Lord  Advocate?  You.  It  is,  remember,  the  head  of  your 
profession,  and  it  may  be  for  a  time  only,  but  for  a  time  you 
must  go  there.  It  is  your  natural  post.  Perhaps,  after,  it  may 
be,  some  months,  you  may  have  to  be  put  up  higher. 

"  I  have  seen  John  Redmond  :  he  has  been  here.    The  Irish, 


264  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

he  says,  want  you  to  be  Chief  Secretary  for  Ireland.  But  I 
said  to  him,  '  How  can  he?  He  would  be  leaving  the  work 
of  his  life,  with  all  its  avenues  of  advancement;  he  could  not 
be  asked  to  do  such  a  thing.' 

"'  He  would  be  the  man  most  acceptable  to  the  Irish  people,' 
said  Redmond." 

And  then  C.B.  said  to  me  again  : 

"Remember  your  rightful  place,  to  begin  with,  at  least,  is 
the  head  of  your  profession;  you  must  look  at  it  so." 

I  said,  "Well,  yes;  it  is  your  command;  but  please  don't 
think  I  say  '  Yes  '  on  that  account.  I  dare  say,  in  fact,  I 
believe,  that  your  judgment  is  the  sound  one,  and  so  please 
don't  think  there  is  any  regret  about  it;  that's  all  right.  I 
really  did  not  know  what  to  think  about  it  myself,  and  what- 
ever decision  you  had  come  to  I  would  have  done  my  best,  and 
I  felt  sure  that  you  would  be  looking  round  about  the  affair, 
and  honestly  I  am  mightily  glad  that  you  have  settled  it  one 
way  or  another." 

*  *  *  •*  * 

"Who  are  you  sending  to  the  Chief  Secretaryship?"  I 
said. 

"Well,"  he  said,  "James  Bryce;  he  was  a  difficult  man 
exactly  to  place." 

Sinclair  then  entered  the  room  (our  talk  had  lasted  nearly 
half  an  hour)  and  said  :  "Sir  Henry  Fowler  and  Lord  Ripon 
are  here.  Fowler  has  waited  eight  minutes  already;  I  only 
wanted  you  to  know." 

I  smiled  to  Sir  Henry  and  said,  "Fowler  has  been  going 
about  the  Reform  Club  like  a  hen  on  a  het  girdle";  and  he 
laughed. 

"Well,  then,"  said  I,  "what  do  I  do?" 

"Oh,  you  can  do  nothing  till  Monday.  I  have  to  submit 
my  list  to  the  King.  The  King  has  been  first-rate  through  it 
all.  No  difficulty  in  that  quarter  "  (meaning,  I  think,  that  the 
King  approved  his  standing  absolutely  firm  with  Asquith 
and  Co.). 

"Then  you  will  write  me?  "  said  I. 

"No,"  he  said,  "it's  all  right." 

"I  think  you  might  drop  me  a  note,"  I  said;  "I  should 
like  to  have  it  for  Elsie's  sake." 


THE   MAKING   OF   A   MINISTRY        265 

"I  see,"  he  said;  and  we  moved  to  the  door,  and  he  went 
upstairs  to  beard  Fowler. 


That  is  the  history  of  the  transaction  to  the  best  of  my 
recollection.  Throughout  the  interview  his  humour  was  always 
bubbling  up,  as  for  instance  when  he  described  certain  men 
and  their  peculiarities,  their  hesitations,  their  prejudices,  and 
their  foibles;  but  always  he  felt  his  way  back  with  a  warm- 
hearted reference  to  their  strong  points. 

***** 

The  letter  which,  for  your  mother's  sake,  the  Prime 
Minister  had  promised  to  write  to  me,  came  along.  If 
you  would  care  to  read  it,  here  it  is  : 

"29,  Belgrave  Square,  S.W. 

"December  10,   1905. 
"MY  DEAR  SHAW, 

"  I  hope  you  will  give  me  the  great  pleasure  of  submitting 
your  name  to  the  King  for  appointment  as  Lord  Advocate. 

"I  need  not  tell  you  with  what  extreme  satisfaction  I  shall 
discharge  this  duty,  and  how  I  rejoice  that  it  falls  to  me  to 
be  the  channel  of  conferring  on  so  old  and  true  and  close  a 
friend  the  highest  honour  in  his  profession  and  one  of  the  chief 
offices  in  our  common  country. 

"Yours  very  truly, 

"H.  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN." 

So  there,  my  dear,  your  esteemed  father  was  Lord 
Advocate  for  Scotland.  How  did  he  comport  himself  in 
that  office  ?  Ah  !  it  is  not  for  him  to  say,  and  even  if  he 
wished  it,  his  memory  would  not  disclose  much.  Is  it 
not  recorded  in  "Hansard"?  And  when  you  grope  in 
"  Hansard,"  is  there  not  the  other  record  also,  the  Statute 
Book  of  the  Realm  ?  No ;  you  get  no  more  from  me  ! 

It  is  the  jollity  of  those  days  that  I  remember.     Just 


266  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

when  everybody  was  on  the  qui  vive,  a  few  of  us  had  a 
rattling  dinner  at  the  Cafe  Royal.  There  were  Lloyd 
George,  Captain  Seely,  McKenna,  Winston  Churchill  and 
myself.  We  discussed  everything  under  the  sun.  I  can't 
remember  much  more  than  that — except  this,  that  there 
arose  a  great  clamour  amongst  us  as  to  who  was  to  pay 
for  the  dinner !  Captain  Seely  explained  that  he  had  just 
made  ^50  of  profit  on  the  sale  of  a  boat. 

'  Well,  as  for  me,"  says  Winston,  "  I  have  at  this 
moment  a  cheque  for  £1,000  from  Macmillan  in  part 
payment  of  what  is  due  to  me  for  writing  my  father's 
life." 

That  settled  it.  It  was  agreed  with  acclamation  that 
he  should  pay  for  the  dinner ! 

***** 

Ere  I  leave  these  memories  of  Sir  Henry  I  would 
like  to  carry  the  years  forward  just  a  little  and  to  tell  you 
what  remains  of  the  bundle  of  letters.  He  wrote  to  me 
from  various  places — amongst  others,  this  from  Balmoral, 
and  you  will  see  how  even  in  the  midst  of  his  deep  respect 
for  and  loyalty  to  his  Sovereign,  a  humorous  reference, 
in  that  direction,  breaks  out. 

"Balmoral  Castle. 

"October  i,  1907. 
"My  DEAR  THOMAS, 

"Now  that  I  am  in  the  country  I  feel  braced  up  to  write. 

"The  3oth  ?  Of  course,  joyfully.  You  are  all  too  kind. 
Perhaps  you  will,  in  the  abundance  of  your  leisure,  tell  me 
what  I  can  say  about  Edinburgh.  I  have  in  this  year  plastered 
Glasgow  for  a  big  town  and  Montrose  for  a  small  one.  On 
Friday  I  have  to  praise  Peebles  (for  pleasure).  I  want  a  few 
fresh  adjectives  for  the  next  noble  Lucumo. 


THE   MAKING   OF  A   MINISTRY        267 

"The  sun  was  shining  on  all  the  high  summits  here — out- 
door and  indoor — for  the  last  three  days.  To-day  Lochnagar 
is  misty  :  I  have  not  yet  seen  the  intramural  peak,  but  I  am 
no  feared. 


"Kindest  thoughts  to  all  of  you. 

"H.  C.-B." 

Then,  alas !  come  the  letters  with  the  deep  black  edge. 
Lady  Campbell-Bannerman  was  gone.  Once,  behind  the 
Speaker's  chair,  I  asked  him  anxiously  about  her,  know- 
ing how  ill  she  was;  and  he  replied  to  me,  with  a  deep 
look  in  his  eyes  :  "  Thomas — you  know — the  '  Pilgrim's 
Progress.' '  Then  he  suddenly  stopped,  and  we  parted, 
very  moved.  I  knew  what  he  was  thinking.  The  crossing 
of  the  River;  and  the  Land  of  Beulah;  and  the  company 
of  the  Shining  Ones. 

I  went  to  Belmont  to  her  funeral,  being  then  the  guest 
of  Sir  Francis  Evans,  who  had  a  shooting  up  Glen  Isla. 
When  after  the  service  I  shook  hands  with  him  to  go,  he 
looked  blankly  at  me,  and  sat  down  on  a  chair,  saying, 
'  Thomas,  you  are  not  to  leave  me  to-night."  And  so  I 
remained.  And  I  wish  to  tell  you  that  of  that  small  com- 
pany who  remained  no  one  was  more  considerate  or  more 
tender  to  him  than  Asquith.  If  there  had  ever  been  any 
failure  to  see  eye  to  eye,  I  think  surely  that  it  must  have 
then  come  to  an  end;  and  Sir  Henry  reciprocated  the 
warmth,  and  I  know,  as  I  shall  tell  you  in  a  minute,  that 
he  did  so  to  the  end. 

His  own  health  I  do  not  think  was  ever  the  same. 
Honours  came  upon  him  :  Freedoms  of  cities  were  con- 
ferred, and  so  on ;  yet  you  can  see  of  course  in  these  later 
letters  how  his  faculty  for  fun  began  to  be  resumed,  with 


268  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

a  joke  now  and  again  about  public  men,  including  Lord 
Rosebery,  whom  he  always  called  "  Barnbougle." 

After  a  visit  to  Edinburgh  he  tells,  in  a  letter  of  thanks 
about  it  to  your  mother,  so  gratefully  worded  as  this  : 

"Belmont. 
"October  31,  1907. 
"DEAR  MRS.  SHAW, 

*  •*  *  *  * 

"I  was  closely  cross-examined  by  my  two  young  ladies 
regarding  all  my  proceedings.  But  no  description  of  mine  was 
adequate  to  your  admirable  arrangements  for  my  comfort,  and 
to  the  enjoyment  which  you  and  your  young  ladies  contrived 
to  put  into  my  stay.  I  do  not  mention  the  men — they  count 
for  nothing. 

"With  very  kind  regards, 

"Very  sincerely  yours, 
\ 

"H.  CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN." 

During  a  short  stay  on  the  Continent  he  still  kept  his 
eye  upon  all  that  was  going  on,  and  he  was  grateful  for 
any  help  that  one  could  render  to  him  even  in  a  humble 
way  with  his  own  constituency  meetings.  I  feel  almost 
inclined  to  write  you  this  letter  out  in  full,  and  for  the 
saddest  of  all  reasons,  dear  Isabel,  namely  that  it  is  the 
last  letter  he  ever  wrote  to  me.  This  is  how  it  runs  : 

"Hotel  Continental, 

"Biarritz. 

"December  6,   1907. 
"MY  DEAR  THOMAS, 

"  I  hear  of  a  most  kind,  unselfish,  public  spirited  thing  being 
done,  in  the  shape  of  an  engagement  by  a  not  unoccupied  man, 


THE   MAKING   OF   A   MINISTRY        269 

to  take  the  place  of  a  disabled  friend,  and  gratify  a  patient  and 
faithful  community  by  giving  them  a  speech.  If  you  know 
the  man,  give  him  a  word  of  praise  from  me. 

"  I  am  established  comfortably  here  for,  I  hope,  some  weeks, 
and  if  I  do  not  get  good  from  it,  it  will  not  be  the  fault  of  this 
place. 

"The  weather  is  unfavourable — boisterous  wind  and  alter- 
nations of  sunshine  and  slashing  rain.  But  it  is  a'  ane  to 
Dandie  :  even  indoors  I  get  the  fresh  sea  air  which  they  say 
is  best. 

"I  am  pronounced  to  be  '  tired  out  ' — and  the  tiredness  takes 
the  form  of  asthmatic  turns  which  are  unpleasant  (or  worse) 
while  they  last,  but  which  I  am  told  arise  purely  from  weakness 
and  will  disappear  after  a  good  rest.  Nothing  wrong  organic- 
ally or  even  functionally,  they  all  say. 

"This  is  a  much  more  manly  and  outspoken  part  of  the 
world  than  your  vapid,  sickly,  ill-balanced  Riviera  :  its  faults 
I  have  not  yet  discovered.  One  advantage  is  that  now  we  are 
between  seasons;  the  Autumn  French  and  Spanish  have  gone, 
and  the  Winter  English  not  yet  come.  So  we  have  plenty  of 
elbow-room,  and  no  bores  yet  discovered.  Yes,  one  .  .  . 
ex-M.P.  I  have  escaped  him  as  yet. 

All  best  thoughts  and  regards  to  your  best  of  all  halves  and 
the  young  ladies.  I  only  wanted  to  tell  you  of  that  generous 
man. 

"Yours, 

"H.   C.-B." 


Yes  :  his  last  letter.  I  saw  him  on  his  death-bed  twice 
in  Downing  Street,  in  the  break-up  of  his  constitution, 
like  a  brave  warrior  sinking  to  rest.  And  he  was  think- 
ing of  others,  too.  I  am  not  alluding  to  our  own  selves; 
but  there  is  one  thing  that  he  said  to  me  on  the  last  occasion 
when  I  saw  him  that  I  should  like  you  to  know. 

"  Do  you  remember,  Thomas,  what  I  told  you  about 
Asquith  ?  " 

"  Don't  I  ?  "  said  I ;  "  I  remember  every  word  of  it." 


270  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

'  Well,"  he  said,  "  bear  this  in  mind  :  Asquith  is  a 
fine  fellow;  he  is  a  loyal  fellow.  Asquith  has  been  like  a 
son  to  me." 

I  never  saw  the  dear,  great,  lovable  man  again. 

"  Oh,  but  they  say  the  tongues  of  dying  men 
Enforce  attention  like  deep  harmony." 

Good  night,  my  dear  girlie  !    I  fear  I  have  been  a  little 
moved,  myself,  with  these  rememberings. 

Your  loving 

FATHER. 


LETTER    XXXIX 
KEEPING   STARS    IN    THEIR    ORBIT 

9,  Bolton  Gardens,  SW .$. 

December  n,   1920. 
DEAR  MAIDIE, 

I  know  that  you  want  to  hear  a  little  about  those  men 
with  whom  the  Lord  Advocate  found  himself  the  associate 
after  he  and  all  the  others  had  been  ten  years  in  Parlia- 
mentary opposition. 

The  gift  which  Sir  Henry  Campbell-Bannerman  had 
for  what  I  would  call  the  reconciliation  of  apparent  oppo- 
sites  amounted  to  genius.  Hence  came  that  co-operation 
of  men  drawn  from  different  schools  of  political  thought 
which  filled  the  enemy  with  surprise  and  which  bore  good 
fruit. 

A  good,  distinguished  Tory  friend  of  mine  had  hoped 
publicly  for  the  overthrow  of  his  own  party  so  as  to  provide 
fun  for  the  country  in  the  spectacle  of  the  sheer  impossi- 
bility of  finding  either  talent  or  singleness  of  purpose  in 
the  Liberal  camp.  One  Liberal  more  distinguished  in 
literature  than  in  politics  said  :  "  A  queer  stud,  did  you 
say  ?  Ah  !  but  they  all  come  to  the  manger  !  "  That  was 
the  kind  of  fluffy  stuff  that  was  floating  in  the  air. 

What  was  wanted  was  one  common  foundation,  and 
the  Prime  Minister  found  that  foundation  in  Liberalism 

271 


272  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

itself.  And  secondly  what  was  wanted  was  a  note  of  firm 
authority  welding  all  together,  and  that  Sir  Henry  Camp- 
bell-Bannerman,  with  urbanity  and  determination  and 
strength,  supplied. 

The  result  of  this  variety  in  unity  was  harmony.  Let 
me  give  you  three  examples  taken  from  three  spheres  of 
action,  namely,  civil,  military  and  foreign  affairs. 

I  will  take  Mr.  Lloyd  George  himself.  We  all  knew 
even  before  he  joined  the  Government — we  should  have 
been  blind  in  Parliament  if  we  had  not  known — how  con- 
summate were  his  powers,  not  only  of  public  eloquence  but 
of  Parliamentary  criticism  and  management.  As  I  have 
told  you,  George  and  I  had  been  closely  associated.  And 
no  one  enjoyed  more  than  you  children  did  the  tales  of 
our  spirited  adventures.  He  was  younger  and  more 
vigorous  than  I,  and  he  always  took  exercise  with  a  hearty 
relish — for  which  simple  fact  let  Europe  be  thankful.  We 
played  golf  on  some  of  these  artificial  English  courses  : 
Let  us  draw  the  curtain  on  those  Radical  foursomes.  We 
were  all,  I  hope  and  trust,  better  at  politics  than  at  the 
other  game  !  When  he  stayed  with  us  in  Edinburgh  I 
used  to  be  struck  not  only  with  his  political  gifts  but  with 
his  quickness  of  apprehension  and  with  his  powers  of 
adapting  everything  in  any  field  that  he  came  across  to 
the  purpose  of  the  argument  that  he  had  in  hand.  Of  this 
I  will  give  you  an  example  which  amused  the  Edinburgh 
political  circles. 

He  was  a  great  one  for  hearing  sermons.  One  of  the 
best  in  the  morning  from  our  own  Mr.  Dunbar  would  not 
satisfy  him  :  he  must  be  off  in  the  evening  to  hear  Dr. 
Whyte.  He  had,  I  think,  the  next  day  to  address  a  meet- 
ing in  Edinburgh  on,  of  course,  the  follies  and  worse  of 


KEEPING   STARS   IN   THEIR   ORBIT   273 

the  Government  of  the  day.  It  was  that  time  in  politics 
when  Tariff  Reform  was  sprung  upon  the  country  by  Mr. 
Chamberlain  after  the  disillusionment  over  the  war.  A 
disillusionment  this  was  which  I  cannot  but  feel  that  Mr. 
Chamberlain,  having  visited  South  Africa,  deeply  shared. 
Well,  it  was  then,  and  upon  that  topic  of  Tariff  Reform, 
that  the  Unionist  Party,  if  not  at  sixes  and  sevens,  was  at 
least  at  tens  and  threes.  The  task  of  Mr.  Balfour  might 
have  been  considered  to  be  that  he  should  give  definite 
light  and  a  definite  lead  upon  the  crucial  and  absorbing 
theme.  But  he  did  not  see  it  thus;  and  he  was  so  astute 
and  so  adroit  as  to  keep  his  Party  together  without  any 
personal  committal  whatsoever.  Many  a  time  the  Liberals 
tried  to  corner  him ;  many  a  time  he  was  called  on  to 
stand  and  deliver;  but  on  every  occasion  in  a  cloud 
of  words  he  escaped,  to  the  delight  of  all  admirers  of 
mental  agility ;  and  even  while  his  followers  were  puzzled, 
they  applauded  to  the  echo.  Now  he  appeared  to  be  a 
Free  Trader;  now  he  appeared  to  be  a  Tariff  Reformer; 
now  it  would  almost  appear  as  if  he  were  neither;  again 
it  would  almost  appear  as  if  he  were  both.  Yet  the  party 
he  led  followed  him. 

To  come  back  to  Mr.  Lloyd  George.  On  the  Sunday 
afternoon  of  which  I  speak  I  tossed  over  to  him  an  amusing 
Glasgow  book  called  "  Wee  Macgreegor  ";  would  he  care 
to  look  at  it?  You  know  the  book  well,  and  remember 
the  scene  where  the  boy  sees  the  elephant  at  the  circus 
and  is  astonished  by  its  oscillating  trunk.  To  my  surprise 
the  next  evening  in  the  midst  of  his  speech  Mr.  Lloyd 
George,  to  the  relish  of  his  audience,  entered  upon  an 
examination  of  the  Tory  Party,  and  he  made  some  simile 
between  it  and  the  large,  unwieldy  and  thick-skinned 


274  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

elephant.  How  was  it  led?  Alluding  adroitly  to  the 
leadership  of  Mr.  Balfour,  he  exclaimed,  in  the  language 
of  "  Wee  Macgreegor," 

"  Maw,  whit  wey  is  its  neb  sae  shoogly  ?  " 
Apart  from  these  quips,  his  eloquence  was  then  more 
sustained,  better  ordered,  less  conversational,  than  his  style 
to-day,  admirable  and  persuasive  as  that  is.  And  he  could 
touch  the  mind  to  a  deep  conviction  and  the  heart  with  a 
high  quickening.  One  of  the  most  powerful  passages 
which  I  remember  in  the  Music  Hall  of  Edinburgh  was 
when  he  was  pleading  for  the  reality  of  patriotism  in  small 
nationalities,  and  how  they  cherished  with  a  tenacious 
memory  the  adventures,  the  achievements  and  the  suffer- 
ings of  heroism  :  and  he  cited  with  a  moving  brilliancy 
the  case  of  Hofer.  To  a  man  like  him,  and  in  such  an 
atmosphere,  the  Wallace  episodes  were  weapons  ready  to 
hand. 

This,  then,  was  one  school  of  thought,  to  which,  of 
course,  I  ardently  belonged,  which  for  shortness'  sake  may 
be  called  the  Radical  Pro-Boer  School,  earning  that  ap- 
proval in  some  quarters  and  that  contempt  in  others  with 
which  we  were  all  familiar.  But  once  at  the  Board  of 
Trade  Mr.  Lloyd  George  speedily  showed  the  beginnings 
of  that  administrative  talent  and  that  driving  power  which 
have  made  him  in  these  later  years  like  a  messenger  of 
hope  and  saving  to  his  country. 

•TV  *  *W"  ^^  ^ 

Now  another  school.  Take  Haldane  himself.  Sud- 
denly he  was  placed  by  his  Chief,  to  whom  having  once 
given  his  allegiance  he  kept  his  pledge  unwaveringly,  in 
that  post,  the  Secretaryship  for  War,  which  of  all  others 
Sir  Llenry  knew  best.  And  when  I  think  of  what  that 


KEEPING   STARS   IN   THEIR   ORBIT   275 

selection  was  able  to  do,  by  placing  the  capacious  industry 
and  brain  of  Lord  Haldane  into  a  definite  orbit,  and  into 
such  an  orbit,  instead  of  permitting  it  to  fly  off  at  a  tangent 
into  political  space,  I  feel  very  grateful  for  my  country's 
sake. 

Who  knew  better  than  Bannerman  what  it  was  to  dis- 
band the  militia?  Who  knew  better  than  he  the  varied 
camps  of  military  thought  by  which  the  novel  proposal  of 
a  territorial  force  capable  of  indefinite  expansion  was  to 
be  canvassed  ?  One  day  of  lack  of  harmony  between  the 
shrewd  sturdy  chieftain  and  the  subtle  philosophical  fol- 
lower might  have  undone  a  project  which  has  been  charged 
with  inestimable  benefit  to  the  Empire. 

"  Blow,  blow,  thou  winter  wind  ! 
Thou  art  not  so  unkind 
As  man's  ingratitude." 

This  is  what  I  often  say  when  I  hear  people  talk  about 
Lord  Haldane.  I  dare  say  I  am  a  partial  witness,  having 
been  his  colleague  for  many  years  in  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  Empire ;  but,  harking  back  to  politics,  I  cannot  but 
feel  grateful  that  the  great  fund  of  common  sense  on  the 
part  of  both  parties  saved  a  situation  and  a  split  which 
might  have  brought  the  nation  to  the  verge  of  ruin. 
***** 

It  is  the  same  with  Grey.  The  influence  of  Lord 
Rosebery  upon  Sir  Edward  Grey,  who  had  been  his  Under- 
secretary for  Foreign  Affairs,  might  appear  to  have  re- 
tarded his  development  and  increased  his  detachment. 
Yet  a  touchstone  of  his  undoubted  Liberalism  was  Ireland ; 
for  he  has  throughout  been  its  true  friend,  never  deviating, 
so  far  as  I  know,  from  the  Gladstonian  cast  of  mind  with 
regard  to  that  country.  But  all  this  and  the  definiteness 


276  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

of  his  place  in  what  I  may  call  comprehensively  the  non- 
Bannerman  school,  makes  the  transaction  under  which  he 
was  lifted  to  Cabinet  rank  one  for  which  on  every  side  the 
country  may  well  be  thankful. 

Just  recently  I  had  occasion  in  looking  over  Blue  Books 
to  consider  what  were  the  greatest  dispatches  of  my  time. 
Speaking,  I  hope,  quite  impartially,  and  certainly  with  the 
judgment  of  one  who  is  now  remote  from  public  life,  but 
whose  sole  business  in  life  is  to  make  judgments,  I  would 
name  these  greatest  dispatches,  or  sets  of  dispatches,  as 
three  in  number. 

The  first,  and  they  remained  the  first,  in  my  estimation, 
for  many  years,  were  those  of  Mr.  F.  W.  Reits,  State 
Secretary  of  the  Transvaal  in  August  and  September, 
1899.  I  should  put  it  at  least  thus — that  to  the  impartial 
mind  these  stand,  for  riveting  cogency  and  for  convincing 
power,  in  a  very  striking  contrast  with  the  narrow  and 
niggling  cleverness  of  the  British  diplomacy  of  that  day. 

The  second  in  rank  among  great  dispatches  was  that 
of  Mr.  Morley,  when,  shortly  after  entering  the  India 
Office,  he  settled  for  many  years  that  controversy  then  at 
an  acute  stage  between  the  military  and  the  civil  power. 
Each  he  placed  in  position,  but  he  lifted  the  latter  to  its 
sound  predominance  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  us  and  the 
Indian  Empire  his  debtors. 

These  two  sets  of  dispatches  to  which  I  have  referred 
reached  a  very  high  level.  But  a  higher  still  was  attained 
in  those  so  simply  worded  by  Sir  Edward  Grey  in  July 
and  August,  1914,  that  critical  period  of  the  history  of  the 
world. 

I  do  not  like  making  quotations,  but  for  your  sake,  dear 
Isabel,  it  is  well  that  you  should  remember,  and  that  clearly 


KE;EPING   STARS   IN   THEIR   ORBIT  277 

and  vividly,  these  words  from  the  communication  made  on 
the  3Oth  July,  1914,  by  our  Foreign  Secretary  to  Sir 
Edward  Goschen,  our  Ambassador  in  Berlin.  The  ques- 
tion of  Peace  and  War  was  trembling  in  the  balance. 
Germany,  astonished  that  Britain  should  protest  against 
the  violation  of  treaty  and  of  honour  by  the  invasion  of 
Belgium,  had  still  to  receive  another  surprise  in  the  objec- 
tion which  this  country  tendered  to  the  proposal  that  we 
might  be  bought  off  from  defending  right,  by  an  engage- 
ment upon  the  part  of  Germany  that  the  existing 
boundaries  of  France  in  Europe  would  not  be  disturbed. 
To  this  Sir  Edward  Grey  replied  in  these  words : 

"What  he  asks  us  is  in  effect  to  engage  to  stand  by  while 
French  Colonies  are  taken  and  France  is  beaten,  so  long  as 
Germany  does  not  take  French  territory  as  distinct  from  the 
Colonies. 

"From  the  material  point  of  view,  such  a  proposal  is  un- 
acceptable, for  France,  without  further  territory  in  Europe  being 
taken  from  her,  could  be  so  crushed  as  to  lose  her  position  as 
a  Great  Power,  and  become  subordinate  to  German  policy. 

"Altogether  apart  from  that,  it  would  be  a  disgrace  for  us 
to  make  this  bargain  with  Germany  at  the  expense  of  France,  a 
disgrace  from  which  the  good  name  of  this  country  would  never 
recover." 

But  the  gravity  of  the  dispatch  deepens  and  its  vision 
widens  when  it  deals  with  no  less  a  topic  than  the  security 
for  the  future  peace  of  the  world.  Listen  to  this  : 

"And  I  will  say  this:  If  the  peace  of  Europe  can  be  pre- 
served and  the  present  crisis  safely  passed,  my  own  endeavour 
will  be  to  promote  some  arrangement  to  which  Germany  could 
be  a  party,  by  which  she  could  be  assured  that  no  aggressive  or 
hostile  policy  would  be  pursued  against  her  or  her  allies  by 
France,  Russia  and  ourselves  jointly  or  separately.  I  have 
desired  this  and  worked  for  it,  as  far  as  I  could,  through  the 


278  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

last  Balkan  crisis,  and  Germany  having  a  corresponding  object, 
our  relations  sensibly  improved.  The  idea  has  hitherto  been 
too  Utopian  to  form  the  subject  of  definite  proposals,  but  if  this 
present  crisis — so  much  more  acute  than  any  that  Europe  has 
gone  through  for  generations — be  safely  passed,  I  am  hopeful 
that  the  relief  and  reaction  which  will  follow  may  make  possible 
some  more  definite  rapprochement  between  the  Powers  than  has 
been  possible  hitherto." 

In  my  humble  judgment  this  part  of  the  dispatch 
brings  the  best  thinking  of  Grotius  up  to  date.  I  have 
many  times  been  grateful  that  it  was  the  voice  of  England 
which  read  that  lesson. 

In  these  later  years,  as  you  know,  much  of  my  spare 
time  was  taken  up  in  trying  to  get  the  League  of  Nations 
Society  set  on  its  legs;  but  I  must  tell  you,  if  I  have  the 
chance,  something  more  definite  about  that  some  other  day. 
Meantime  I  should  only  say  this,  that  it  was  a  dispatch  like 
that  which  I  have  just  cited  that  gave  precedence  and 
substance  and  a  near  and  living  reality  to  the  idea,  which 
the  world  so  slowly  grasps,  of  a  League  of  Nations. 

Has  this  letter  been  too  long?  Well  there,  in  that 
Government  of  which  I  was  a  member  was  to  be  found 
that  ganglion  of  influences  gathered  together,  and  then 
radiating  through  the  Empire  and  through  history,  and 
communicating  a  power  which,  with  many  mistakes,  was 
still  one  of  healing  and  of  right. 

You  see  how  high  I  place  the  Campbell-Bannerman 
Government,  and  you  see  also  how  I  think  the  world  would 
have  suffered  if  its  differing  units  had  been  permitted  to 
diverge,  to  dissipate  their  energies,  or  to  perish  in  the 

atrophy  of  isolation. 

Your  affectionate 

S.  OF  D. 


LETTER    XL 

TO    THE    GILDED    CHAMBER 

9,  Bolton  Gardens,  SW.$, 

December  24,  1920. 

ISABEL,  MY  DEAR, 

It  was,  I  suppose,  a  bit  of  an  event  for  all  you  children 
when  your  father  became  the  Lord  Advocate  for  Scotland. 
A  great  personage  he  was  in  former  days,  was  the  King's 
Advocate.  Some  of  the  line  were  famous;  some  were  a 
bit  notorious  in  their  time,  clever  enough,  but  strange 
persons  to  be  entrusted  with  so  large  a  power  over  the 
liberty  of  the  subject.  If  it  had  not  been  that  I  was  so 
hustled,  I  dare  say  I  might  have  reflected  with  trembling 
upon  being  successor  to  the  bluidy  MacKenzie !  The 
high  office,  the  Crown  practice,  the  private  practice,  the 
occasional  advisings  in  Cabinet  Committees,  the  Parlia- 
mentary attendance  :  put  together  they  were  rather  a  strain 
—especially  so  for  a  reason  which  was  by  and  by  to  put 
me  under  the  surgeon's  knife. 

In  those  days  the  Attorney-General  for  England  had 
his  £10,000  a  year,  was  debarred  from  private  practice, 
but  was  briefed  in  thousands  upon  thousands  for  Crown 
work.  In  Scotland  the  Advocate  had  his  ,£5,000  a  year, 
could  take  what  private  practice  he  could  gather  in  the 
scraps  of  his  time,  but  had  to  do  all  the  Crown  work  for 
nothing.  This  curious  difference  still,  I  believe,  exists, 

279 


280  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

but  why  it  should  be  so — I  mean  the  scheme  about  Crown 
and  private  work — I  am  sure  I  cannot  say. 

In  my  own  case,  although  a  good  deal  came  privately, 
my  place  was  the  House  of  Commons,  with  now  and  again 
a  sortie  into  Scotland.  As  for  Scotland,  never  was  a  Lord 
Advocate  better  served  by  a  Solicitor-General  and  a  Crown 
Agent  than  I  was  by  Ure  and  Sir  William  Haldane. 
Once  the  lines  of  even  the  most  ticklish  cases  were  settled 
—and  it  was  only  upon  the  most  ticklish  cases  that  they 
sought  my  guidance — I  had  no  fears  whatsoever  that  all 
would  be  well  handled.  These  offices  were  never  filled  by 
more  capable  men.  Often  I  leaned  heavily  upon  them, 
but  they  never  failed.  You  see  what  real  and  standing 
comforts  I  had? 

It  is  a  good  rule  that  no  man  be  a  judge  in  his  own 
cause.  Lawyers  have  been  known  to  break  the  rule — 
break  it  deplorably — when  they  have  begun  to  write  about 
their  legal  and  official  doings.  Anyhow,  you  don't  get  one 
word  from  me  on  that  subject.  Can  you  not  wander  at 
leisure  in  those  Gardens  of  the  Blest,  Hansard  and  the 
Statutes  of  the  Realm? 

In  Parliament  we  were  faced  with  a  keen  and  intel- 
lectually strong  Opposition.  While  the  country  was 
forcing  the  Government  forward  towards  Radical  legis- 
lation, and  much  of  it,  it  was  faced  in  front  by 
steady  and  most  capable  criticism.  It  was  a  time  for 
having  one's  wits  about  one.  The  failing  health  of  Sir 
Henry  Campbell-Bannerman  made  all  eyes  turn  to  his 
successor;  and,  when  his  death  occurred,  Mr.  Asquith 
stepped  into  the  vacant  Premiership,  and  the  choice  of  His 
Majesty  met  with  the  heartiest  approval,  not  of  one  party 
but  of  all  parties  in  Parliament  and  in  the  co'untry. 


TO   THE   GILDED   CHAMBER  281 

It  is  not  generally  known,  but  it  is  the  fact,  that  the 
acceptance  of  the  seals  of  that  office  from  the  Sovereign 
puts  the  Premier  in  the  position,  not  of  taking  over  a 
Government,  but  of  forming  a  Government  of  his  own. 
So  we  were  all  out  of  office.  And  we  went  on,  on  the 
principle  of  holding  the  fort.  One  or  two  dropped  out, 
notably  Lord  Elgin  from  the  Colonial  Office.  Mr. 
Asquith  was  in  every  dealing  I  ever  had  with  him  kind- 
ness and  consideration;  and  he  always  loved  any  drollery 
that  was  going.  Somebody  said  to  me  one  day,  "  Lord 
Advocate  " — and  I  stopped  him  :  "  Not  exactly,"  said  I, 
"  but  locum  tenens!  "  When  Mr.  Asquith  heard  of  it — 
he  had  forgotten  all  about  Dover  House — he  wrote  me  a 
charming  letter.  So  there  I  was  planted  again  in  the 
high  office. 

Alas !  but  not  for  long.  Once  more  it  happened ; 
again  a  bolt  from  the  blue ;  again  I  was  confronted  by 
the  totally  unexpected.  On  the  2nd  of  February,  1909, 
there  occurred  at  Cap  Martin  the  death  of  Lord  Robertson, 
the  brilliant  Parliamentarian  and  Scotch  Lord  of  Appeal. 

Was  there  ever  such  a  cantrip  of  fortune?  On  many 
platforms  I  had  spoken  freely  and  I  hope  faithfully  and 
without  undue  compliment  of  the  Gilded  Chamber,  and 
then  Dame  Fortune  comes  along  and  she  says  :  "  No  more 
of  platforms  for  you ;  get  you  to  the  Gilded  Chamber 
yourself  and  stay  you  there  for  the  rest  of  your  natural 
life  !  "  I  was  submissive  and  I  went. 

What  of  your  principles  now?  said  the  wags.  And  I 
feebly  replied  :  "  My  principles  are  quite  intact,  (i)  I 
am  still  against  the  hereditary  principle;  (2)  I  am  still  in 
favour  of  the  payment  of  members;  and  (3)  I  am  still  in 
favour  of  early  rising  !  " 


282  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

Do  I  aggravate  you,  Isabel,  by  not  giving  you  the 
serious  side  of  that  transaction  ?  Well,  dear,  I  made  notes 
at  the  time.  I  have  them  by  me  as  I  write.  But  no  :  you 
cannot  have  them. 

As  some  people  would  view  it,  it  was  perhaps  a  strong 
thing  to  have  passed  by  the  Chair  of  the  illustrious  Stair, 
the  Chair  of  Duncan  Forbes  and  of  so  many  great  Presi- 
dents down  to  the  majestic  Inglis  himself,  who  had  en- 
couraged me  from  his  high  place  when  I  was  but  a  youth. 
Let  these  details,  however,  stand  aside.  The  impressions 
remain.  The  Future  and  the  Past  seemed  so  dissevered. 
As  for  the  Past,  I  was  veritably  heart-sore  to  leave  the 
House  of  Commons.  As  for  the  Future,  then  opening 
before  me,  it  presented  to  me  those  august  lineaments  of 
jurisprudence  and  of  law  in  which  they  still  appear. 

Law  and  Jurisprudence;  they  are  high,  sedate,  and 
stately  things,  but  they  are  beyond  the  range  of  definition. 
You  cannot  define  a  great  landscape;  you  cannot  define 
a  noble  statue.  Description  alone  must  serve,  and  de- 
scription must  take  its  cast  from  the  mould  of  the  de- 
scriber's  mind.  I  have  served  twelve  years,  humbly 
helping  in  the  greatest  jurisdiction  in  the  world;  but  still 
I  hesitate  even  to  describe.  My  imperfect  language 
reaches  only  to  this  single  word.  Jurisprudence  is  the 
ordered  march  of  justice.  When  order  is  forsaken  and 
the  march  becomes  either  a  fevered  rush,  or  an  ill-balanced 
and  fantastic  measure,  then  an  ordinance  truly  divine  has 
been  debased,  the  steps  of  justice  falter,  and  the  ends  of 
justice  fail. 

Next  to  the  higher  reaches  of  literature  and  of  states- 
manship, do  not  the  search  for,  the  unfolding  of,  the  ad- 
ministration of,  the  distribution  of,  justice — do  not  these 


TO   THE   GILDED   CHAMBER  283 

things  make  an  excelling  call  among  all  the  secular  affairs 
of  men  ? 

In  writing  these  letters  I  should  have  remembered  that 
lightsomeness  which  is  your  due.  But  somehow — not  for 
the  first  time — I  have  got  down  among  the  deep  gravities 
of  life.  Pray  forgive  me. 

Good  night !     Good  night ! 

Your  own 

TRUE  LOVE. 


LETTER    XLI 
THE    IMPORTATION    OF    ARMS 

Craigmyle. 

New  Year's  Day 

of  1921. 
MY  CHILD, 

What  a  strange  New  Year's  Day !  Here  I  am,  be- 
tween five  and  six  hundred  miles  north  of  London,  and 
for  hours  I  have  been  through  fields  and  woods,  gun  in 
hand,  perspiring  in  the  sun.  The  air  is  balmy — so  mild 
that  the  flies  rise  thickly  in  the  warmth  from  hedgerow  and 
ditch;  no  leaf  falls,  for  the  recent  gales  have  stripped  the 
deciduous  trees  quite  bare.  But  the  others — the  hollies, 
the  spruces,  and  the  Scotch  and  silver  firs,  stand  resplen- 
dent in  green,  bristling  for  the  tempest  and  the  snow. 

The  association  of  ideas  is  sometimes  an  association  of 
opposites ;  I  have  passed  from  this  peace  to  turmoil,  from 
faith  and  hope,  to  disquiet  and  the  bounds  of  despair. 
This  being  translated  nationally  means  that  in  thought  I 
have  crossed  from  Scotland  to  Ireland.  As  I  truly  love 
both  countries,  that  is  a  hard  saying. 

Some  time  ago  I  wrote  to  you  of  that  "  touch  and  go  " 
episode  when  my  life  was  so  nearly  turned  into  the  channel 
of  Irish  administration.  That  was  on  the  public  side. 
Then  on  the  private  side  came  the  day  when  the  great 
Irish  surgeon  sought  Elsie's  hand  in  marriage  :  and  of 
course  their  busy  life — to  him  the  glory  of  saving  life  and 

284 


THE   IMPORTATION   OF   ARMS         285 

to  both  the  ministry  of  brightening  it — has  kept  in  Ireland 
a  goodly  part  of  our  interest  and  love. 

But  these  are  not  what  I  wanted  to  be  at  in  this  letter ; 
for  in  my  wanderings  to-day  it  occurred  to  me  that  there 
were  three  years  in  succession  in  which,  so  far  as  making 
marks  on  the  memory  is  concerned,  Ireland  and  some 
events  in  it  struck  deep.  In  1914  I  presided  over  the 
Royal  Commission  as  to  the  importation  of  arms  into  the 
Dublin  district.  In  1915  I  lay  in  Dublin  at  the  gates  of 
death.  And  in  1916  I  personally  witnessed  in  the  Irish 
capital  the  outbreak  of  the  Sinn  Fein  Rebellion. 


So  much  has  happened  there,  and  here,  and  in  Europe, 
during  those  six  years,  that  to  look  up  the  pages  of  the 
Royal  Commission  Report  "  into  the  circumstances  con- 
nected with  the  Landing  of  Arms  at  Howth  on  July  26, 
1914,"  is  as  if  one  were  turning  on  the  light  over  trans- 
actions half  a  century  old. 

I  was  to  have  gone  alone  upon  the  mission.  But  Mr. 
Walter  Long,  representing  the  Unionist  Party,  suggested 
to  the  Government  that  the  Commission  should  be  broad- 
ened by  the  inclusion  as  my  colleagues  of  a  judge  from, 
so  to  speak,  each  of  the  two  sides  of  Irish  opinion.  On 
being  appealed  to,  I  expressed  the  view  that  Mr.  Long 
was  unquestionably  right.  In  the  event  we  were  able  to 
conduct  the  Inquiry  with  complete  accord  and  to  present 
a  Report  which  was  unanimous  in  every  particular. 

"  On  the  afternoon  of  Sunday,  the  26th  July,  a  yacht 
entered  the  Harbour  of  Howth,  about  eight  and  a  half 
miles  from  Dublin,  and  was  met  by  a  body  of  about  1,000 
Irish  Volunteers.  They  took  possession  of  the  landing- 


286  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

place,  and  unloaded  from  the  yacht  a  quantity  of  arms 
and  ammunition.  Each  man  possessed  himself  of  a  rifle. 
Some  other  rifles  were  conveyed  away  along  with  some 
ammunition  by  motor-cars  and  wagons." 

Since  a  Proclamation  of  the  previous  December  arms 
had  become  forbidden  imports ;  so  that  this  was  smuggling ; 
a  plain  case  for  the  Customs  Authorities.  It  was  notorious, 
however,  that  this  smuggling  had  been  going  on,  in  Ireland, 
that  is  to  say,  in  Ulster.  It  was  notorious  that  the  Customs 
Authorities  had  never  suppressed  it.  or  obtained  aid  to 
suppress  it,  in  Ireland — that  is  to  say,  in  Ulster. 

Whether  what  was  so  notorious  was  true,  we  had  no 
jurisdiction  to  inquire.  Here  was  the  rub.  We  were  ap- 
pointed on  the  Howth  case  alone,  or  rather  on  its  lament- 
able sequel.  We  had  no  power,  even  if  we  had  so 
inclined,  to  investigate  what  importation  of  arms,  if  any, 
had  been  made  at  Belfast  or  any  of  the  Ulster  ports,  or 
as  to  whether  the  Government  showed,  there,  a  vigilance 
which  supported  the  law  or  a  laches  which  lowered  it  and  so 
encouraged  its  defiance.  Had  we  started  that,  we  might 
not  have  got  to  the  bottom  of  it  yet.  Here  was  a  not 
unfamiliar  affair.  An  intense  public  clamour :  stilled  by 
the  appointment  of  a  Royal  Commission  :  and  the  terms 
of  the  remit  so  drawn,  wilfully  or  unwittingly,  as  to  shut 
out  vital  sections  of  the  truth. 

We  had  not  long  started  with  the  Inquiry  till  we  came 
to  realize  that.  But  we  had  to  stick  to  our  text.  The 
sequel  of  the  importation  was  a  sorry  business.  The 
Customs  Authorities  did  not  move.  But  others  did,  and; 
as  we  unanimously  found,  without  consultation  with  re- 
sponsible superiors  and  without  the  bounds  and  sanction 
of  law.  The  police  were  called  out  in  force;  then  the 


THE   IMPORTATION   OF   ARMS         287 

military;  some  arms  were  seized;  numbers  of  people, 
furious  at  this  turn  of  affairs,  followed  the  military  with 
insulting  behaviour  into  Dublin.  In  Bachelors'  Walk  the 
soldiers  turned  in  wrath,  and  in  the  confusion  fired  point- 
blank  into  the  unarmed  crowd,  killing  three  and  injuring 
thirty-eight  persons. 

We  had  to  unravel  the  story,  and  we  were  entirely 
agreed  in  holding  that  neither  on  the  civil  nor  the, 
military  side  was  the  procedure  warranted  by  law. 
That  law  we  investigated,  analysing  the  Statutes; 
and  we  devoted  a  special  chapter  to  that  delicate  but 
most  important  inquiry,  namely,  the  scope  and  limits  of 
military  duty  in  a  civil  emeuie.  These  things  are  worth 
learning.  Alas  !  when  the  crisis  comes,  they  are  kept  in 
the  study  instead  of  being  used  in  the  street.  Will  either 
civilians  or  military  ever  learn  them  and  give  heed  ?  Above 
all,  will  it  ever  be  so  in  Ireland?  Still  we  grope  on,  in 
the  darkness,  praying  for  the  dawn. 

That  broil  is  not  forgotten,  but  it  is  past.  A  few 
deaths,  a  few  woundings,  sad  and  tragical  as  they  were, 
were  as  nothing  compared  to  the  underlying  significance 
of  the  affair ;  and  that,  owing  to  the  terms  of  our  Commis- 
sion, it  was  beyond  our  province  to  get  at.  My  distin- 
guished and  learned  colleagues  and  I  felt  this.  Here 
was  a  something  passing  out  of  our  hands,  but  the  cor- 
rectitude  of  the  position  precluded  our  getting  down  to 
those  basic  causes  which  were  as  wide  as  the  administration 
of  Ireland. 

We  could  not  part  with  the  problem  thus.  So  we 
boldly  stated  our  conjecture,  told  how  in  the  circumstances 
there  was  no  evidence,  but  ventured  our  emphatic  opinion 
as  to  what  its  awful  meaning  for  Ireland  would  be  if  the 


288  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

conjecture  were  true.  Was  it  true  ?  Men  in  Ulster  knew. 
The  Irish  administration,  ah  !  how  great  was  its  responsi- 
bility if  it  knew  :  how  great  was  its  responsibility  if  it  did 
not  know ! 

Read  these  scrupulously  careful  sentences.  Can  any 
man  doubt  their  soundness? 

"  If  the  administration  of  the  law  in  Ireland  or  the  action  of 
the  Executive  had  been  characterized  by  partiality  or  discrimina- 
tion as  between  localities  or  classes  of  Your  Majesty's  subjects 
we  should  not  have  hesitated  to  condemn  this,  not  only  as  wrong 
in  itself,  but  as  provocative  of  those  very  hostilities  and  animosi- 
ties among  and  between  sections  of  the  population  which  it 
should  be  the  object  of  all  proper  administration  to  allay.  To 
take  the  instance  in  hand — if  through  the  action  of  the  Executive 
Government  a  discrimination  had  been  made  under  which  the 
seizure  of  arms  had  been  forbidden  in  Belfast  and  ordered  in 
Dublin,  or  if  in  the  one  possession  and  parade  of  contraband 
arms  had  been  allowed,  and  in  the  other  interdicted  and  treated 
as  a  crime  by  the  Government  of  the  day — we  should  not  have 
hesitated  to  connect  the  unfortunate  and  mischievous  results 
with  this  unfortunate  and  mischievous  cause.  .  .  .  We  may  note 
one  singular  illustration  of  how  quickly  the  view  of  indis- 
criminate or  uneven  administration  is  apprehended  and  resented. 
When  the  order  to  seize  rifles  was  given,  eighteen  of  the  police, 
whose  obedience  and  discipline  are  notorious,  refused  to  obey. 
One  of  their  number  who  was  examined  before  us  gave  their 
reason,  viz.,  that  the  disarming  could  surely  not  be  legal  as  it 
had  not  been  done  in  Belfast.  The  eighteen  were  at  once  with- 
drawn from  action,  and  two  of  them,  including  the  witness 
referred  to,  were  dismissed  on  the  following  evening.  We  only 
cite  the  incident  to  illustrate  how  disastrous  to  contentment  and 
to  order  it  would  be  if  the  law  were  partially  or  unevenly 
administered." 

But  you  ask,  "  Father,  was  the  conjecture  true?  "  Was 
that  one  of  the  Sorrows  of  our  beloved  Island? 

Ah,  my  dear,  do  not  ask.  These  are  questions  for  the 
Muse  of  History. 


THE   IMPORTATION   OF   ARMS         289 

Besides,  how  late  it  is  !  I  fling  another  log  or  two 
on  the  fire,  thinking  still  of  Ireland,  but  of  another  visit  to 
it,  a  visit  in  the  spring  of  the  following  year,  and  of  that 
adventure  which  I  may  speak  to  you  of  to-morrow,  an  ad- 
venture when  I  had  a  bout  with  the  notorious  Enemy  with 
the  Scythe,  who  had  dogged  my  steps  for  years. 

Your  ever  affectionate 

FATHER. 


LETTER    XLII 
THE    SWISH    OF    THE    SCYTHE 

Craigmyle. 

January  4,  1921. 
DEAR  LASS, 

The  mountains  are  robed  in  white,  and  the  foothills 
are  swathed  in  a  delicate  tracery  of  snow.  The  hoar- 
frost is  on  the  ground,  and  in  the  glens  and  the  hollows 
the  thin  white  mists  rise  like  an  exhalation.  Five  years 
ago  I  had  my  doubts  whether  I  should  ever  see  such  scenes 
again. 

The  steady  mass  of  professional  cares  was  up  to  the 
strength  limit;  but  when  on  top  of  those  came  the  Boer 
War  and  the  Church  debacle,  the  stand  to  be  taken  about 
these  things  nearly  made  an  end  of  your  respected  parent. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that,  owing  to  those  strained  and 
crowded  hours,  the  uncertain  dietary  and  sometimes  no 
dietary  at  all,  the  night  travelling,  the  great  gatherings, 
there  began  those  years  of  recurrent  trouble  which  physi- 
cians could  not  diagnose  but  which  developed  quickly 
during  the  years  of  the  Lord  Advocacy. 

Hardly  a  day  passed  of  all  the  term  of  that  high  office 
when  I  was  free  from  pain,  and,  without  the  sterling  help- 
fulness and  watchful  care  of  the  home  circle  and  of  my 
secretaries,  I  could  not  have  held  on.  Buoyancy  went  out 
of  life,  and  it  was  only  when  I  was  on  my  legs  in  the  House 

of  Commons  that  it  came  back.     Before  I  left  that  House 

290 


THE  SWISH   OF  THE  SCYTHE         291 

the  recurrent  had  become  chronic,  and — not  to  put  too  fine 
a  point  upon  it — a  certain  interior  was  in  urgent  need  of 
alterations  and  repairs.  A  year  or  two  without  improve- 
ment :  a  year  or  two  more  and  things  growing  worse ;  then, 
in  the  spring  of  1915,  I  packed  up  my  traps  en  route  for 
Ireland. 

Should  I  ever  recross  the  Channel?  Who  knew? 
Little  was  said  to  the  dear  ones,  except  that  I  was  to  rest 
and  recuperate  in  the  good  Wheeler's  Nursing  Home  :  / 
knew  that  it  was  the  surgeon's  knife,  and  that  I  was  near 
the  gates  of  death.  Alexander's  affectionate  anxiety  could 
not  be  stilled,  and  he  quietly  followed  me. 

I  may  tell  you  that  your  worthy  brother-in-law  strongly 
protested  against  being  the  performer.  He  was  not  going, 
said  he,  to  start  slicing  up  his  relations !  There  was  a 
good  deal  of  fun,  but  it  closed  up  when  I  said  that  I  could 
almost  hear  the  swish  of  the  scythe,  and  that  if  he  would 
not  operate  I  was  quite  content  to  die.  So  he  buckled  to. 

Never  was  a  man  more  in  luck.  My  affairs  were  all 
arranged.  I  was  in  the  best  of  hands,  human  and  divine. 
And  so  were  they,  the  best  of  all  the  earth,  whether  I  was 
with  them  or  away. 

The  fear  of  death  seems  to  me  an  incredible  thing. 
Life  and  Immortality  have  been  brought  to  light.  The 
true  Life  is  to  come. 

This  lamentation  about  having  to  face  death  is  partly 
paganism  and  partly  conceit.  Paganism,  because  at  the 
pinch  the  belief  in  a  God  of  Truth  and  Wisdom  has 
vanished  and  there  is  a  tumult  of  fear  at  the  prospect  of 
that  very  moment  when  we  move  into  the  Arms  of  Love. 
And  the  conceit  of  it !  This  over-valuing  by  otherwise 
quite  sensible  people  of  their  own  little  allotment  on 


292  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

Earth's  surface  and  in  Earth's  history  :  it  makes  one  a  little 
bit  impatient  to  see  the  sorry  spectacle  so  often. 

All  this  :  how  old-fashioned  it  is !  But,  my  dearest, 
there  are  at  least  two  things  about  this  faith.  It  wears 
well ;  and,  at  the  hour  of  trial,  it  does  not  fail. 

Perhaps  it  helped  to  save  my  life,  giving  the  daring 
deed  a  fair  and  even  chance.  The  buoyancy  returned  : 
the  gnawing  pain  was  gone.  I  was  a  rebel  once  again. 
God  save  Ireland ! 

Good  night,  dear  child. 

Your  loving 

FATHER. 


LETTER    XLIII 
THE    FIRST    SINN    FEIN    REBELLION 

Craigmyle. 

January  5,   1921. 
MY  BELOVED  ISABEL, 

As  the  novels  say  :  One  year  elapsed.  I  returned  to 
Ireland.  It  was  Eastertide,  and  there  was  nothing  what- 
ever to  suggest  an  impending  tragedy  or  the  spilling  of 
blood.  On  the  morning  of  Easter  Monday  I  motored  off 
into  the  Wicklow  Hills  to  fish ;  at  half-past  five  I  returned 
to  Dublin,  where  all  was  strangely  quiet. 

To  a  London  daily  at  the  time  I  contributed  a  series 
of  articles  on  my  next  five  days'  experiences,  and  I  shall 
make  an  extract  or  two.  The  first  Sinn  Fein  rebellion  had 
broken  out.  It  is  all  part  of  history  now,  but  let  me  tell 
you  a  point  or  two,  here  and  there,  still  vivid. 

Let  us  begin  at  the  beginning  : 

"At  the  door  in  Fitzwilliam  Square  I  was  welcomed  with  a 
curious  sigh  of  relief. 

"'  It's  great  doings  we've  been  having  since  your  Lordship 
lift  us,'  said  the  Irish  housemaid  to  me  on  the  threshold.  She 
was  unable  to  keep  silent.  '  Them  Sinn  Feiners  is  shooting, 
something  awful.  Mr.  Wheeler's  been  run  off  his  feet  all  the 
day  :  there's  officers  in  the  Nursing  Home  badly  hit  with  them 
bullets,  and  at  Mercer's  it's  dead  and  dying  they  are,'  etc.,  etc." 

The  insurgents  had  dug  trenches  in  St.  Stephen's 
Green,  and  from  these  they  sniped,  and  their  fire  concen- 


294  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

trated  on  the  Shelburne  Hotel,  which,  when  Sir  Horace 
Plunkett  and  I  passed  next  day,  was  rather  a  woe-begone 
sight,  its  glass  smashed  with  bullets  and  its  windows  barri- 
caded with  bedding.  But  the  incredulous  curiosity  of  the 
populace  no  military  regulation  seemed  to  be  able  to 
restrain.  I  shared  the  feeling  myself. 

In  fact,  in  the  twilight  I  broke  bounds.  I  escaped 
from  zealous  guardianship,  and  found  my  way  to  Stephen's 
Green.  There  were  small  gatherings  of  people  here  and 
there,  with  no  traces  of  real  alarm,  but  many  signs  of 
real  curiosity.  The  firing  was  slacking  off.  I  saw  the 
stopped  tramcars,  and  the  overturned  carts  and  other 
obstacles.  The  so-called  barricades  were  poor  affairs, 
inartistically  put  together,  incomplete  as  barricades,  and 
suitable  merely  as  shelters  here  and  there  for  individual 
snipers. 

One  manoeuvre  was  certainly  new  to  military  annals. 
I  had  been  interned  in  the  Nursing  Home,  during  the 
doctor's  rushes  to  the  wounded  in  hospital  and  elsewhere  : 
and  of  course  the  staff,  with  their  pleasant  recollections 
of  my  case  last  year,  thought  that  I  was  still  under  their 
jurisdiction  !  And  when  the  hue  and  cry  about  me  break- 
ing bounds  was  raised,  they  formed  a  posse — uniformed, 
gentle,  but  very  resolute — and  they  tracked  me  to  St. 
Stephen's  Green,  surrounded  me,  scolded  me,  and  marched 
me  out  of  danger.  Very  imposing  affair ! 

Besides  curiosity,  there  was  a  sense  of  affront  on  the 
part  of  these  crowds  of  spectators.  And  when  the  military 
was  poured  into  Dublin  I  feel  almost  certain  that  there 
was  a  sense  of  relief  and  gratitude.  This  distinguishes 
that  outbreak  from  probably  all  the  others  which  have 
succeeded.  These  soldiers,  it  has  to  be  remembered,  were 


THE   FIRST   SINN   FEIN    REBELLION  295 

disciplined  men.  They  lined  the  streets,  and  this  I  saw 
with  my  own  eyes,  namely,  that  for  hospitality  soldiers 
never  at  such  a  task  had  had  such  a  time.  In  Nassau 
Street,  for  instance,  the  people  came  out  and  were  supply- 
ing them  with  apples,  biscuits  and  bananas — one  woman 
going  from  man  to  man  with  her  great  teapot  and  a  cup. 
Fraternizing  with  the  gallant  Tommy  was  general. 

This,  mark  you,  was  after  severe  fighting,  after  the 
seizure  of  the  Post  Office,  the  destruction  of  great  parts 
of  Abbey  Street,  and  after  a  monitor  in  the  Liffey  had 
blown  Larkin's  headquarters  to  bits.  The  sight  of  this 
filled  me  with  a  strange  hopefulness,  and,  notwithstanding 
the  hubbub,  I  wrote  down  this  : 

"As  the  night  drew  on,  the  heavy  firing,  the  explosion  of 
hand  grenades,  and  the  rattle  of  musketry  grew  severe.  The 
sky  was  lit  up  by  the  flames  from  a  part  of  Sackville  Street  and 
its  hinterland.  This  hinterland,  a  side  street  of  buildings,  was 
being  burnt  out — it  was  said  to  make  clear  range  for  an  artillery 
attack  on  the  General  Post  Office.  Against  the  background  of 
flame  stood  beautifully  out  the  dome  of  a  new  building — I  think 
the  Royal  College  of  Science.  Was  it  an  omen  ?  Against  the 
lurid  and  tragic  background  of  its  history,  was  a  new,  a  better 
Ireland,  to  stand  forth?  With  the  dawning  of  another  day  the 
background — flame  and  smoke  and  much  that  was  old — would 
have  gone,  but  the  new  dome  would  catch  the  sun.  Was  that, 
too,  an  omen  ?  And  so  to  bed." 

And  this  also  : 

"Where  are  the  police?  There  are  no  police.  A  uniform 
was  too  tempting  a  target  for  the  Sinn  Fein  snipers,  and  the 
police  have  been  disbanded  or  have  taken  to  mufti.  But  there 
is  no  general  disorder — not  at  all.  On  the  contrary,  the  general 
demeanour  of  the  people,  their  bravery  and  good  humour  and 
courage,  their  kindness  and  friendship  towards  the  soldiery,  and 
their  mutual  helpfulness — all  this  is  beyond  praise." 

Alas  !  alas  !     Why  were  my  hopes,  why  were  the  hopes 


296  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

of  millions,  blasted?  With  my  own  eyes  I  had  seen  in 
the  Dispensary  of  Mercer's  the  rifle  taken  by  a  priest  from 
a  wounded  Sinn  Feiner.  It  was  engraven  with  the  crown 
and  star  and  marked — 

:<  Deutsche  Waff  en  und 

"  Munitions  Fabriken, 

"  Berlin," 

and  it  had  all  the  minute  numbering  of  Prussian  detail. 
Here  was  an  Ireland  tempted  with  German  munitions,  and 
one  cannot  doubt  tempted  with  German  money.  Yet  with 
my  eyes  I  had  seen  that  Ireland's  people  wanted  to  be 
our  friends. 

Why  were  our  hopes  blasted?  Because,  my  dear,  the 
psychological  moment — the  moment  of  fraternizing — was 
lost.  The  Rebellion  was  put  down,  but  in  the  manner 
of  its  putting  down  no  heart  was  won.  Martial  law  pre- 
vailed; the  country  was  scoured  far  and  wide  for  arms, 
and  instead  of  a  quick  peace,  one  or  two  selected  deaths, 
and  then  a  wide  amnesty,  there  came  the  slow-footed  an- 
nouncement that  to-day  so  many  had  been  executed,  then 
in  a  day  or  two  others  had  paid  the  last  penalty;  and  so 
day  and  death  followed  day  and  death,  till  the  whole  heart 
of  Ireland  revolted,  and  the  language  changed  :  one  heard 
not  now  of  penalty  but  of  sacrifice  :  and  still  the  bloody 
task  was  not  over;  and  men  far  and  wide  began  to  hate 
the  England  that  made  these  recurring  martyrdoms. 

What  is  martial  law  ?  It  may  have  its  awful  uses,  and 
it  must  needs  follow  the  tide  of  conquest.  But  it  is  no 
law  :  it  is  the  helter-skelter  struggle  of  the  top-dog.  And 
in  a  civil  broil,  what  are  the  things  that  are  wanted  to 
commend  a  peace?  Are  they  not  understanding,  sym- 


THE   FIRST   SINN   FEIN    REBELLION  297 

pathy,  forgiveness,  reconciliation  ?  Of  those  things  martial 
law  is  not  the  instrument,  for  it  is  an  instrument  without 
a  heart. 

I  hear  the  wind  among  the  pines.  The  long  night  is 
closing  in,  and  the  storm-clouds  are  descending.  To- 
morrow the  earth  will  be  vestured  in  snow. 

Your  bethochtit 

FATHER. 


nr 


«  T  41 


LETTER    XLIV 
RIGHT   TO   WORK    AND    DUTY    TO    WORK 

9,  Bolton  Gardens,  S.W .$. 

January  28,  1921. 
ISABEL,  MY  DEAREST, 

In  a  letter  to  you  some  time  ago  I  described  how,  in 
the  beginning  of  the  year  1920,  the  task  was  laid  upon 
me  of  being  President  of  the  "  Court  of  Inquiry  concern- 
ing Transport  Workers — Wages  and  Conditions  of  Em- 
ployment of  Dock  Labour." 

We  met  in  the  Court  of  Criminal  Appeal  and  the  scene 
was  interesting.  The  problem  to  be  investigated  was  as 
acute  as  this,  that  upon  its  settlement  rested  the  avoidance 
of  a  strike  at  every  port  in  the  United  Kingdom,  of  hard- 
ship to  every  home  in  the  land,  and  of  misery  and  want  on 
a  heartbreaking  scale.  What  would  happen  should  a  dis- 
pute in  this  business  of  dock  labour  stop  our  sea-borne 
imports  as  well  as  our  export  trade,  and  so  deny  to  the  body 
of  our  people  the  very  necessaries  of  life?  Who  could 
tell? 

Well,  I  was  informed  that  the  crowd  within  those  walls 
were  not  curiosity  hunters,  but  were  men  representing 
employers  and  employed  from  every  important  port  in  the 
Kingdom.  And  I  think  that  this  thought  was  in  the  back 
of  all  our  minds  :  that  we  should  let  the  subject  evolve 
itself  without  passion  or  prejudice,  but  simply  as  an  in- 
vestigation of  the  rival  courses  suggested  and  of  whether 

298 


RIGHT  AND   DUTY  TO   WORK        299 

these  were  for  evil  or  for  advantage,  for  peril  or  for  safety. 
Above  all,  the  supreme  need  lay  upon  us  to  face  difficulties 
both  with  caution  and  with  courage.  We  were  there,  in 
short,  to  let  both  sides  have,  alike  in  the  procedure  which 
achieved  the  result  and  in  the  result  itself,  a  square 
deal. 

On  the  Court  I  had  the  honour  to  act  along  with  four 
representatives  of  Employers  and  four  representatives  of 
Labour,  and  once  we  got  into  our  stride  these  very  able 
men  worked  every  one  of  them  towards  that  end.  And 
somehow  we  felt  that  this  spirit,  which  was  admirably 
helped  by  brilliant  advocacy,  was  having  an  educative 
effect  on  the  representative  gathering.  Here  was  no 
ordinary  trade  dispute,  no  violence,  no  overbearing,  but 
each  party  heard  for  all  the  best  that  it  could  make  of  its 
side  of  the  truth.  Many  of  these  men  had  not  believed 
that  there  was  any  other  side  to  the  dispute  but  one.  To 
unlearn  that  prejudice  is  surely  an  education.  Thus  the 
way  was  prepared  for  the  acceptance  of  an  arbitrative 
award. 

Yet  neither  party,  nor  perhaps  even  the  Government 
itself,  which  had  set  up  the  Court,  was  prepared  for  the 
lessons  which  were  read  to  them  each  and  all.  The  settle- 
ment of  wages  was  not  the  mere  fixing  of  a  figure;  that 
Court  touched  more  than  passing  causes  and  it  could  not 
but  lift  the  curtain  upon  wider  and  abiding  problems. 
The  outstanding  one  of  these  was  what  I  may  call  the 
status  of  Labour  itself — its  economic  status,  its  moral 
status — with  all  the  responsibilities  which  this  involved. 
Near  the  very  centre  of  this  trouble  was  one  topic  with 
a  heartless  past — the  dependence  of  our  dock  and  harbour 
trade  upon  casual  labour.  This  was  a  past  for  revolt 


300  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

against  which  one  at  least  of  my  respected  colleagues  had 
stood  in  the  dock. 

I  do  not  want  you  to  forget  the  like  of  this,  for  instance, 
which  has  appeared  to  learned  students  to  be  of  historical 
and  economic  significance,  as  even  marking  a  stage  in  the 
uplift  of  society.  The  majority  of  the  Court  reported 
thus  : 

".The  Court  is  of  opinion  that  labour  frequently  or  constantly 
unemployed  is  injurious  to  the  interests  of  the  workers,  the 
ports,  and  the  public,  and  that  it  is  discreditable  to  society.  It 
undermines  all  security,  and  is  apt  to  undermine  all  self-respect 
upon  the  workers'  part.  It  is  only  among  those  who  have  sunk 
very  far  and  whom  the  system  itself  may  have  demoralized, 
that  it  can  be  accepted  as  a  working  substitute  for  steady  and 
assured  employment.  In  one  sense  it  is  a  convenience  to 
authorities  and  employers,  whose  requirements  are  at  the  mercy 
of  storms  and  tides  and  unforeseen  casualties,  to  have  a  reservoir 
of  unemployment  which  can  be  readily  tapped  as  the  need 
emerges  for  a  labour  supply.  If  men  were  merely  the  spare 
parts  of  an  industrial  machine,  this  callous  reckoning  might  be 
appropriate;  but  society  will  not  tolerate  much  longer  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  employment  of  human  beings  on  those  lines. 

"The  system  of  casualization  must,  if  possible,  be  torn  up  by 
the  roots.  It  is  wrong.  And  the  one  issue  is  as  to  what 
practical  means  can  be  adopted  of  readily  providing  labour, 
while  avoiding  cruel  and  unsocial  conditions. 

"So  serious  has  the  position  become  that  it  has  evolved  habits 
of  mind  and  body  on  the  part  of  the  workmen  themselves  which 
are  detrimental  to  them  and  on  a  wide  scale  deeply  injurious. 
Many  workers  have  got  into  the  habit  of  thinking  that  day 
labour  is  a  sign  of  independence,  and  that  labour  secured  even 
for  a  week  leaves  them  devoid  of  that  liberty  to  do  nothing 
which  they  have  come  to  prize.  As  in  so  many  other  cases 
mentioned  in  this  Report,  this  habit  of  mind  is  in  no  respect 
sanctioned  by  the  leaders  of  the  men,  and,  as  properly  urged  by 
them,  one  of  the  true  lines  of  reform  in  this  trade  will  be  the 
abolition  of  the  daily  wage  system  and  the  substitution  therefor 
of  the  payment  of  wages  weekly." 


RIGHT  AND   DUTY  TO   WORK         301 

With  the  uplifting  of  the  status  of  dock  labour  there 
came  also  into  full  view  the  problem  of  the  standard  of 
living  for  human  beings.  Upon  this  problem  philan- 
thropists and  sociologists  had  worked  for  two  genera- 
tions, but  it  had  been  brought  to  acuteness  and  extreme 
urgency  by  the  high  level  of  prices  reached  during  the 
War. 

On  that  problem  this  was  the  deliverance : 

"The  true  and  substantial  case  presented  by  the  dockers  was 
based  upon  a  broad  appeal  for  a  better  standard  of  living. 
What  is  a  better  standard  of  living  ?  By  this  is  not  meant  a 
right  to  have  merely  a  subsistence  allowance,  in  the  sense  of 
keeping  the  soul  and  body  of  the  worker  together,  but  a  right 
to  have  life  ordered  upon  a  higher  standard,  with  full  regard  to 
those  comforts  and  decencies  which  are  promotive  of  better 
habits,  which  give  a  chance  for  the  development  of  a  greater 
sense  of  self-respect,  and  which  betoken  a  higher  regard  for  the 
place  occupied  by  these  workers  in  the  scheme  of  citizenship. 
The  Court  did  not  discourage  this  view;  on  the  contrary,  it 
approved  of  it;  and  it  is  fair  to  the  Port  Authorities  and  em- 
ployers to  say  that  its  soundness  was  not  questioned.  In  the 
opinion  of  the  Court  the  time  has  gone  past  for  assessing  the 
value  of  human  labour  at  the  poverty  line." 


What  then,  with  a  new  status  of  labour  and  with  a 
higher  standard  of  living — what  then?  Had  not  these 
rights  of  labour  their  correlative  in  its  duties?  Must  not 
labour  accept  also  its  measure  of  responsibilities,  dignify- 
ing its  sphere  and  justifying  its  place  in  the  new  scheme 
of  things? 

This  question  brought  us  up  not  only  to  labour's  reward 
but  to  labour's  return,  not  only  to  standards  of  living  but 
to  standards  of  honour.  On  these  things  the  Court  spoke 
thus  : 


302  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

"When  in  the  ordinary  business  of  life  the  common 
standards,  say,  of  time,  money,  weight  or  measure,  are  made 
matters  of  bargain,  they,  of  course,  become  for  each  of  the 
parties  standards  of  honour;  and  there  is  just  as  little  justifica- 
tion, say,  for  one  man  giving  short  time  as  for  another  giving 
short  weight.  Each  is  upon  the  equal  footing  of  being  con- 
demned by  contract,  by  law,  and  by  the  principles  of  fair 
dealing.  These  things  are  quite  well  known,  and  the  habit  of 
ignoring  them  in  any  department  of  life  is  a  habit  against  which 
all  enlightened  men,  and  amongst  these  the  Court  emphatically 
includes  the  leaders  of  labour,  resolutely  set  their  faces." 
***** 

"Upon  the  second  point,  the  course  of  enlightenment  does 
not  seem  to  have  made  the  progress  which  might  have  been 
anticipated.  The  Court  cannot  be  blind  to  the  fact  that  there 
is,  not  arising  from  exceptional  causes  but  as  part  of  a  deliberate 
policy,  the  adoption  in  not  a  few  cases  of  a  system  of  slowing 
down  of  output.  Blame  in  this  respect  can  only  be  imputed 
to  a  minority  of  the  men  interested  in  this  Inquiry.  The  great 
majority  see  the  system  in  its  true  light.  The  system  known 
as  '  ca'  canny  '  is  loss  on  every  side.  The  workman  gains 
nothing  in  time.  Even  with  regard  to  his  habits  and  character, 
as  well  as  the  dignity  of  his  calling,  the  things  which  to  every 
decent  man  are  really  precious,  loss  ,ind  deterioration  and  injury 
occur.  It  must  need  be  so  under  a  system  which  substitutes  for 
honest  work  a  scheme  of  make-believe.  To  take  the  illustration 
given,  it  is  not  a  case  of  short  time  in  the  apparent  bulk,  it  is 
time  adulterated,  just  as  the  other  case,  say,  the  case  of  a  mer- 
chant, who  would  make  up  weight  by  moistening  his  sugar  or 
mixing  it  with  sand.  There  is  one  answer,  and  one  only,  to  all 
such  devices  :  honesty  forbids." 

I  hope  that  I  have  not  bored  you  with  these  sentences. 
Perhaps  you  will  agree  that  they  should  not  be  entirely 
buried  in  a  Blue  Book. 

And  remember  this  also.  I  share  the  regrets  of  so 
many  at  the  deficiencies  of  the  economic  education  of  our 
people — not  of  one  class  but  of  all  classes.  I  share  the 
aspirations  of  sociologists.  But  beneath  both  regrets  and 


RIGHT   AND   DUTY  TO   WORK        303 

aspirations  lies  a  something  in  the  moral  sphere  :  in 
theology  men  call  it  righteousness;  in  law,  justice;  in  the 
life  of  man  it  is  honesty.  When  capital  is  squandered — 
except  it  be  in  war — the  fragments  of  it  may  be  ingathered 
in  other  hands.  But  it  is  not  so  with  labour  or  with  time. 
Labour  withheld  :  only  the  severest  strain  can  ever  replace 
that.  Time  squandered,  is  time  lost  for  ever.  These 
things  are  no  doubt  so  :  but  yet  beneath  all  is  another 
essential  fundamental  truth,  that  the  withholding  of  con- 
tract labour  and  the  adulteration  of  contract  time  do 
violence  to  fair  dealing.  It  is  that  which  gives  serious 
men  pause — not  simply  that  a  loss  is  involved  which  makes 
for  poverty  and  want,  but  because  "  Honesty  forbids." 

But  when  men  deplore  the  too  frequent  departure  from 
standards  of  honour,  do  not  be  too  downhearted.  That 
is,  that  must  be,  a  passing  phase.  It  is  the  vicious  remnant 
of  an  evil  past.  It  is  of  good  cheer  that  of  seven  members 
of  the  Dock  Inquiry  Court  who  signed  these  outspoken 
words,  four  of  them  were  able,  leading,  representative 
working  men.  A  better  day  is  dawning — the  day  of  the 
right  to  work  and  the  duty  to  work. 

"  We  walk  the  wilderness  to-day, 
The  promised  land  to-morrow." 

Have  you  read  all  this  letter,  without  skipping?  If 
so,  you  are  a  good  and  thoughtful  maidie,  and  you  have 

pleased  a 

Very  austere 

PARENT. 


LETTER    XLV 

"TRUTH    AND    JUSTICE    THEN" 

I,  Palace  Gate, 

Christmas  Eve,  1919. 
MY  DEAREST  ISABEL, 

(You  have  given  me  back  this  letter  a  year  after  it  was 
written,  and  asked  me  to  bring  it  up  to  date.  So  the  first 
three  paragraphs  have  been  put  in — not  as  a  postscript 
but  as  an  antescript !) 

Yes,  I  hear  you  say  :  "  You  have  been  telling  me  about 
Royal  Commissions  and  the  League  of  Nations  and  things 
like  that  since  you  went  into  the  Lords  :  but  what  about 
the  Law?" 

It  is  perhaps  not  unnatural  that  after  I  have  been 
eleven  or  twelve  years  at  the  job,  you  should  press  me  to 
say  something  about  my  doings  as  a  Judge.  But  I  am 
not  going  to  yield  to  even  your  importunity  or  to  start 
anything  of  the  kind.  Do  you  not  think,  upon  reflection, 
that  such  an  exercise  is  unbecoming?  Speaking  as  a 
lawyer,  I  must  tell  you  again  of  the  good  rule,  that  no  man 
can  be  a  judge  in  his  own  cause  :  And  as  a  Presbyterian  I 
hereby  solemnly  declare  that  it  is  not  to  edification. 

It  is  for  others  to  appraise  all  that.  Not  even  to 
Hansard,  not  even  to  the  Statute  Book  must  they  go,  but 
— for  all  these  twelve  years'  labour — to  the  Law  Reports  ! 

Oh,  the  Law  Reports,  the  Law  Reports !  Think  of 
them,  with  all  their  Diocesan  dignity,  and  that  kind  of 

304 


"TRUTH   AND   JUSTICE   THEN'1        305 

unctuous  and  reproachful  decency  which  repels  your  in- 
trusive advances.  Leave  them  alone;  they  are  not  for 
the  like  of  you.  Have  a  look  just  at  their  backs  :  bucolic, 
splendidly  housed,  all  full  calf.  How  often  have  I  been 
tempted  to  put  a  tablet  above  them  inscribed  with  Byron's 
couplet  from  "  English  Bards  and  Scotch  Reviewers  "L: 

"  Smooth,  solid  monuments  of  mental  pain, 
The  petrifactions  of  the  plodding-  brain." 

Such  irreverence,  I  am  sure  !  The  kind  of  rebound 
after  a  long  period  of  tension,  into  the  slack  of  the  holiday 
season.  But  I  cannot  keep  it  up.  May  I  have  a  serious 
word  with  you? 

The  other  afternoon,  with  a  sigh  of  relief,  for  it  has 
been  a  laborious  term,  the  sittings  for  the  year  of  the 
Judicial  Committee  came  to  an  end.  The  two  last  de- 
cisions just  before  we  rose  awoke  curious  reflections.  Not 
unseasonable  thoughts  they  were,  even  for  Christmastide. 
One  of  these  cases  was  a  conflict  between  a  native  prince 
and  a  municipality  in  Oudh  as  to  the  right  of  the  latter 
to  drive  a  street  through  a  Gunj,  or  market-square,  on 
the  ground  of  which,  beneath  the  fierce  rays  of  the  Indian 
sun,  you  might  see  the  natives  exposing  their  grain  in 
piled-up  heaps.  The  other  was  a  contest  between  a 
wealthy  Railway  and  a  great  Corporation,  and  it  was,  if 
you  please,  about  the  clearing  away  of  snow  from  the 
tracks  of  a  street  railway  in  the  City  of  Toronto !  At 
one  bound,  so  to  speak,  from  the  sweltering  heat  of  India, 
away  to  another  continent,  to  the  chill  and  rigour  of 
Canadian  winter !  And  all  these  contentions  to  be  laid 
to  rest  in  that  little  room  in  Whitehall  which  you  know. 

Suddenly,  as  I  felt  that  "  the  time  draws  near  the  birth 


306  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

of  Christ,"  I  realized  that  the  quiet,  far-reaching  task  in 
which  the  Privy  Council  is  engaged  may  be — must  be — 
a  part  of  that  process,  in  which,  through  instruments  ever 
so  imperfect,  the  perfect  scheme  of  peace  on  earth  may 
be  lifted  forward  in  the  practice  and  affairs  of  men. 

Quiet,  did  I  say  ?  Yes  :  its  business  is  the  search  for 
truth;  and  the  stuff  which  it  works  in  is  justice.  A  grave 
task  and  austere,  according  so  much  with  simplicity  and 
quiet  that  there  is  no  place  there  for  even  the  paraphernalia 
of  a  Court. 

Far-reaching,  did  I  say?  Yes.  From  that  little  room 
in  Whitehall  is  wielded  a  jurisdiction  over  one-quarter  of 
the  population  of  the  globe.  To  that  little  room  come 
able,  learned  men,  widely  different  in  race  and  creed  and 
colour,  all  to  help  in  that  task,  fundamentally  human, 
fundamentally  divine,  the  search  for  truth,  the  doing  of 

justice. 

"  Yea;   Truth   and   Justice   then 
Shall  down  return  to  men." 

Yes,  the  association  of  ideas — of  our  task  with  the 
season— is  not  fanciful.  Rightly  conceived,  the  supreme 
tribunal's  authority  and  work  must  have  their  place  in 
an  evolution  and  a  purpose  wider  than  human  constitu- 
tions, more  lasting  than  human  institutions,  loftier  than 
all  schemes  of  jurisprudence  or  of  law.  Was  not  the 
Miltonic  conception  sound — to  associate  truth  and  justice 
with  goodwill  and  peace?  Over  and  over  again  there 
come  before  the  Board  questions,  antagonisms,  rivalries, 
jealousies,  which  in  former  times  would  have  driven  races, 
provinces,  kingdoms,  to  rancorous  and  bloody  wars.  These 
problems  are  settled  by  the  arbitrament  of  equity  and  by 
a  justice  so  manifestly  achieved  without  fear  or  favour, 


"TRUTH   AND   JUSTICE  THEN"        307 

that  their  solution  is  accepted  with  a  loyalty  at  once 
respectful,  real  and  complete.  So  that  one  can  feel  that 
peace  is  being  won  and  kept  by  justice — a  peace  more 
enduring  than  any  that  could  be  imposed  even  by  the  rod 
of  Imperial  power. 

Christmas  Eve  :  Christmas  Eve  :  Put  up  the  holly. 

Your  affectionate  Father, 

SHAW   OF    DUNFERMLINE. 


:  ool  *t  .fr 

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LETTER    XLVI 
LITERATURE    AND    THE    LEAGUE 

9,  Bolton  Gardens,  S.W '.5. 

February   i,   1921. 
MY  DEAR  LASS, 

There  was  a  contrast,  very  broad  indeed,  between  those 
feelings  and  convictions  which  many  of  our  people  enter- 
tained about  the  South  African  War  (1899-1900)  and  those 
which  were  stirred  among  us  by  the  Great  War  of  1914- 
1918.  Of  the  former  I  have  written  to  you  more  than 
once;  while  of  the  latter  you  have  felt  the  signification  of 
my  view  about  a  famous  dispatch  of  Sir  Edward  Grey. 
In  the  diplomatic  dealings  which  preceded  the  first  we  did 
not  shine  :  in  those  which  preceded  the  second  I  humbly 
think  that  we  did.  You  know  my  cast  of  mind — how  I 
hate  war,  and  militarism,  and  the  tyranny  of  the  powerful, 
and  all  the  rest  of  it :  yet  what  I  have  stated  on  the  Euro- 
pean War  question  is  my  sincere  belief  :  the  War  was  on 
its  merits  just,  and  on  the  facts  a  war  which  was  unavoid- 
able, so  long  as  no  method  other  than  war  had  been  devised 
by  civilization  for  the  restraint  of  an  aggressor. 

The  crucial  point  for  millions  like  myself  was  :  How 
did  we  stand  upon  the  broad  issues  raised  by  the  pre-War 
diplomacy?  We  thought  in  the  one  case  that  our  dear 
country  was  wrong,  and  in  the  other  that  it  was  right. 

Who  can  tell?  Our  vision  is  too  narrow.  We  must 
humbly  abide  in  each  case  the  questionings  of  conscience 

308 


LITERATURE   AND   THE   LEAGUE     309 

and  the  verdict  of  history.  As  for  myself,  I  feel  that  it  is, 
of  course,  within  the  bounds  of  possibility  that  the  dis- 
passionate man  may  yet  arise  who  will  defend  the  trans- 
actions and  communications  of  Germany,  unwinding  her 
policy  and  justifying  her  ambitions,  but  I  gravely  doubt 
whether  such  a  man  has  yet  been  born. 

It  is  not  for  you  and  me  within  the  compass  of  a  letter 
to  go  into  these  questions  of  deep  policy.  But  while 
there  was  so  much  of  contrast  between  the  one  case  and 
the  other,  there  was  at  least  one  point,  one  little  spark 
of  lightness  and  of  happiness,  that  shone  for  us  in  the 
gloom  of  these  terrible  wars. 

You  know  how  I  have  always  loved  the  highways  of 
literature  rather  than  its  by-ways — probably  because  a 
scant  leisure  did  not  permit  of  the  more  leisured  enjoy- 
ments. During  these  wars  had  not  one  the  need  and  the 
hunger  for  great  elementary  consolations  rather  than  for 
petty  distractions  ?  So  it  came  about  that  during  the  Boer 
War  my  Elizabethan  studies  were  broadened  as  I  have 
described. 

Then,  when  the  European  conflict  came,  one  felt  that 
one  had  not  during  one's  life  dealt  faithfully  by  France, 
that  wounded,  bleeding,  distracted,  heroic  country.  And 
when  I  took  to  French  literature  again  with  that  kind  of 
fanciful  sense  of  duty,  I  confess  to  you,  Isabel,  that  I  did 
not  fully  realize  how  solidly  and  nobly  built  was  its  great 
highway.  Just  as  in  a  former  period  Shakespeare  and 
Spenser  had  provided  their  unfailing  springs  of  delight,  so 
amidst  the  clamorous  noise  of  the  great  events  of  the 
second  vast  conflict  the  quiet  hours  were  brightened  by 
Moliere  and  uplifted  by  Victor  Hugo.  Here  am  I  to-day, 
having  for  instance  read  during  that  War  all  the  works  of 


3io  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

Moliere,  and  having  gone  from  cover  to  cover  of  Hugo's 
"  Les  Miserables,"  with  its  forty  romances,  having 
wandered  among  his  dramas  and  poems,  stretching  from 
the  glorious  monologues  of  Hernani — one  of  these  so 
daring  as  to  recall  to  the  mind  the  vast  structure  of  human 
order  conceived  by  Hobbes  in  his  "  Leviathan  " — from 
these  to  the  idyllic  sweetness  of  L'Enfant. 

I  give  these  only  as  samples  from  that  great  high- 
way stretching  on  to  Cherbuliez  and  Barbusse  in  our 
own  day;  but  I  declare  to  you  that  it  sometimes  crosses 
my  mind  that  at  least  this  is  one  of  the  uses  of  great  wars, 
to  make  men  take  to  great  literatures.  One  need  not  name 
the  list  of  heroes,  but  surely  one  will  love  France  with 
an  affection  which  is  more  durable,  having  walked,  how- 
ever imperfectly,  among  her  great  ideas  led  by  the  most 
gifted  of  her  sons. 

Shortly  after  the  Armistice  was  declared  I  found  these 
studies  to  be  not  without  value,  and  they  formed,  I  think, 
part  of  the  link  of  my  friendship  with  M.  Bourgeois,  the 
present  President  of  the  French  Senate.  It  came  about 
in  this  way.  After  the  Armistice  was  declared,  and  when 
the  great  Conference  was  being  held  in  Paris  to  hammer 
out  the  Treaty  of  Peace,  I  went  there  at  the  head  of  a 
deputation  from  the  League  of  Nations  Society.  Similar 
deputations  proceeded  from  other  countries,  and,  together 
with  our  brethren  in  France,  we  held  a  series  of  meetings, 
our  object  being  to  get  our  ideas  put  into  definite  shape 
on  a  subject  which  was  infinitely  more  important  to  the 
world,  in  our  opinion,  than  the  mere  haggling  over  the 
arrangements  among  the  victors  or  with  the  vanquished. 
Ostentatiously  it  had  been  declared  that  this  was  a  War 
to  end  War,  and  we  wanted  to  help  that  in  very  truth  it 


LITERATURE   AND   THE   LEAGUE      311 

should  be  so.  Our  desire  was  that  the  Peace  should  not 
be  a  patch-up,  but  part  of  a  recognized  and  permanent 
principle  for  the  arbitrative  settlement  of  disputes  between 
all  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth. 

There  was  Utopia  for  you  !  And  on  that  subject  just 
let  me  go  back  a  bit.  For  about  a  couple  of  years  prior 
to  that  the  League  of  Nations  Society  had  dragged  on 
with  exiguous  resources  and  in  the  cold  shade  of  some- 
thing worse  than  opposition,  namely,  indifference — an 
existence  which  was  only  brightened  by  the  determination 
and  energy  of  a  small  knot  of  enlightened  men.  They 
went  from  man  to  man  looking  for  someone  of  the  highest 
public  standing  who  would  take  them  by  the  hand,  and 
they  were  not  successful.  It  seems  to-day  like  a  dream 
to  me,  the  difference  between  that  struggling  infancy  and 
the  quick  and  marvellous  growth  which  has  been  reached 
within  four  years'  time.  Just  consider  what  it  is  to  have 
passed  from  that  beginning,  as  I  did  as  the  President  of 
the  Society,  to  that  Chamber  in  Paris  where  the  organizing 
energy  of  M.  Bourgeois  and  of  delegates  from  Belgium, 
Italy  and  many  countries,  some  as  far  away  as  Japan  and 
India,  had  created  an  enthusiasm  which  was  fanned  into 
a  flame  by  the  eloquence  of  Viviani.  We  were  aware  that 
every  evening  as  our  propositions  were  formulated,  after 
discussion,  they  were  conveyed  by  M.  Bourgeois  to  M. 
Clemenceau,  and  were  welded  into  the  Covenant  which 
was  then  being  constructed. 

The  Covenant  was  framed.  The  actual  League  of 
Nations  came  into  being.  And  then  think  of  that  further 
stage  only  the  other  day,  when  the  League  of  Nations  met 
in  Geneva  with  representatives  upon  it  from  forty-two 
nations  of  the  earth.  You  may  see,  of  course,  anywhere 


312  LETTERS  TO   ISABEL 

about  the  vast  projects  which  came  under  discussion,  but, 
as  I  say,  it  is  the  contrast  between  the  slender  infancy  and 
the  swift  rise  through  an  ardent  youth  to  a  strong  manhood 
that  does  impress  one. 

What  shall  happen  to  it  ?  Who  can  tell  ?  The  memory 
of  man  is  short  and  the  horrors  of  war  pass  into  a  kind 
of  gilded  and  glorified  oblivion,  and  the  demon  is  not 
exorcised  for  ever.  I  know  all  that;  but  let  us  hope  on. 
It  is  indeed  no  light  task  for  the  nations  to  address  them- 
selves to  a  programme  which  is  no  less  than  the  adjust- 
ment of  international  disputes,  the  regulation  of  national 
ambitions,  and  the  prevention  of  international  crimes.  The 
Holy  Alliance  failed,  and  all  its  pietistic  provisions  were 
seen  to  have  been  but  a  cover  for  the  jealousies  of  kings. 
My  hope  is  in  the  peoples  of  this  world.  It  is  they  for 
whom  a  League  should  exist.  It  is  for  them  to  say  whether 
the  world  is  to  be  governed  any  longer  by  dynastic  or 
racial  ambitions  or  on  the  principle  of  the  brotherhood 
of  man. 

Much  learning  in  the  past  has  led  up  to  the  present 
situation,  and,  as  you  know,  I  have  written  upon  Grotius 
recently  to  some  of  the  journals  on  this  subject.  But 
neither  past  learning  nor  past  history  will  guide  civiliza- 
tion far,  unless  all  the  great  nations  who  own  the  name 
will  band  themselves  together. 

What  of  America?  Why  does  she  stand  out?  In 
Paris  we  found  that  our  colleagues  from  America  were 
heart  and  soul  with  us,  but  were  cramped  at  every  turn 
by  consideration  for  the  position  of  President  Wilson  and 
by  the  trouble  of  party  politics  on  that  Continent,  and  their 
Constitution  seemed  ever  rising  before  them  like  a  dis- 
turbing spectre.  At  a  great  gathering  one  evening  I  spoke 


LITERATURE   AND   THE   LEAGUE     313 

heartily  in  public  to  our  American  friends,  saying  to  them 
what  I  now  repeat  to  you,  that  it  is  right  for  a  nation,  just 
as  it  is  right  for  a  man,  to  pay  regard  to  the  Constitution. 
That  makes  it  and  him  live  a  sober  and  a  temperate  life. 
But  when  the  tables  are  turned  and  the  Constitution 
becomes  an  obsession,  and  people  are  ever  wondering 
whether  they  should  do  this  or  that  for  fear  of  their  Con- 
stitution, then,  whether  it  be  for  a  nation  or  a  man,  the 
paths  of  good  sense  and  good  comradeship  and  good 
conduct  may  be  blocked  because  of  sheer  hypochondria. 

This  view  is,  of  course,  open  to  many  objections,  but 
it  may  strike  some  sensible  men  as  true.  America,  thank 
God  !  came  into  the  War  before  the  European  nations 
were  altogether  bled  white,  and  by  her  help  the  haemor- 
rhage was  staunched.  It  is  no  longer  a  case  of  a  bleed- 
ing world,  but  it  is  the  case  of  a  stricken,  maimed  and 
wounded  world,  and  in  the  healing  of  those  wounds 
and  the  restoration  of  a  real  peace,  what  we  pray  is 
that  America  do  not  stand  out  until  mortification  has 
set  in. 

It  was  from  America  that  we  learned  afresh  that  "  Man 
is  more  than  Constitutions."  It  was  from  America  that  we 
learned  afresh  the  unselfishness  of  true  freedom,  asking 
ourselves,  with  a  sense  of  consecration,  whether  we  who 
are  free  can— 

"  With  leathern  hearts  forget 
That  we  owe  mankind  a  debt." 

Do  not  think  I  speak  despairingly.  I  speak  of  a  thing 
which  it  is  impossible  for  my  mind  to  conceive — that 
America  will  turn  its  back  upon  those  doctrines.  With 
the  warmth  of  heart  of  its  people  and  with  the  wealth 
of  talent  in  its  public  men,  America  will  not  be  content 


314  LETTERS   TO   ISABEL 

to  find  in  its  Constitution  a  paralysis  which  would  disable 
it  from  the  duties  of  greatness  and  would  make  Alexander 
Hamilton  turn  in  his  grave.  No  nation  is  strong  enough 
to  turn  its  ideals  into  a  derision. 

Be  patient,  then  :  be  patient  with  the  League  of 
Nations.  We  hope  in  this  :  America  will  join  up,  and 
so  will  Germany.  Each  of  those  countries  has  the  equal 
of  a  Bourgeois,  or  even  his  superior,  in  deep  conviction, 
in  statesmanship,  in  organizing  talent.  May  the  time  come 
when  in  Britain,  in  America  and  in  Germany  there  will 
arise  a  Viviani !  I  know  that  Lord  Grey  and  Lord  Robert 
Cecil,  who  have  done  so  much  for  the  cause,  will  re-echo 
this  wish. 

The  cares  of  legal  work  press  upon  me.  I  have  no 
time  to  say  more.  How  comforting  to  think  that  no  pain 
and  no  struggle  in  a  good  cause  can  ever  be  entirely  lost ! 

What  an  optimist  I  am  ! 

Your  loving 

FATHER. 


INDEX 


"  ABERDEEN  Size  "  in  hats,  88 

Acland,  Mr.,  137 

Admiralty  Regulations  for  Shipping, 
72 

Advocate,  becomes  an,  41 
drudgery  of  life  of,  73,  74 

Agnosticism,  outbreak  of,  9 

Alexandriua,  Lord  Shaw's  sister,  death 
of,  9 

Alloa,  Lord  Shaw  and  Campbell- 
Bannerman  at,  236 

Alverstone,  Lord  Chief  Justice  (see  also 
Webster,  Sir  Richard),  on  Presby- 
terian Church  Dispute  in  "  Re- 
collections of  Bar  and  Bench," 
191 

America  and  Great  War,  3 1 3 

and  League  of  Nations,  312-313 
world  influence  of,  313 

"  American  History,"  by  Sir  George 
Trevelyan,  137 

Americans,  characteristics  of,  146 

Annual  Synod  of  United  Presbyterian 
Church,  1 01 

Anstruther,  Sir  Robert,  as  Parliamen- 
tary candidate,  27 

"  Anti-burgher,"  Lord  Shaw  as,  68,  69 

Apostolic  succession  and  Presbyter- 
ianism,  99,  101 

Asher,  Mr.,  estimate  of,  117,  118 
resigns     Solicitor-Generalship     for 
Scotland,    116 

Asquith,  Mr.,  229 

and     Campbell-Bannerrnau,      262, 

263,  267,  269 

formation  of  Government  by,  281 
succeeds  Campbell-Bannerman,  280 

Attorney-General  for  England,  salary 
of,  279 


B 

BACK    Benches,    loyalty    of    men    of, 

114-15 

Balallan,  Crofters'  Meeting  at,  58 
Balfour,  Mr.  Arthur  J.,  and  Carnegie's 

Scotch  University  Trust,  166 
and  United  Free  Church,  177 
in  Home  Rule  Debate,  in,  124 
lunches  with  Botha,  198,  200 
on  confederation  of  South  Africa, 

200 
on  South  African  Constitution,  198, 

199 

South  African  war,  and,  195 
Tariff  Reform  and,  273 
unworthy  treatment  of  Mr.  Ure  by, 

251 

Balfour,  J.  B.,  236 
Balfour,  Lord  Advocate,  69 

as  Lord  Kinross,  Lord  President  of 

the  Court  of  Session,  83 
character  of,  118 
Mr.  Gladstone  as  guest  of,  83 
Balfour  of  Burleigh,   Lord,   and  Car- 
negie's Scotch  University  Trust, 

15&>  159>  16*>  17° 

Ballot  Act,  27 

Bar,  Lord  Shaw  decides  for,  30 
training  for,  40 

"  Barnbougle,"  Campbell  -  Banner- 
man's  name  for  Lord  Rosebery, 
268 

Barrie,  J.  M.,  Lord  Shaw  on  genius  of, 
no 

Bartlett,  Sir  Ellis  Ashmead,  113 

"  Basin  of  Rosyth,"  6 

Baxter,  Richard,  Mr.  Gladstone  on 
works  of,  85 

Baynes,  Professor,  Lord  Shaw  intro- 
duced to,  39 


315 


INDEX 


Belfast,  July  xath  in,  123 
"  Belmont,"  Author  as  guest  at,  239 
funeral  of  Lady  Campbell-Banner- 
man  from,  267 
Bench  of  United  Kingdom,  sympathy 

of,  for  barristers,  75 
Bethell,  Sir  Richard,   Gladstone's  re- 
collections of,  90 
Bible,  "  atmosphere  "  of,  in  Scottish 

homes,  16 

"  Biglow  Papers  "  quoted,  193 
Blackie,  Professor,  at  Edinburgh  Uni- 
versity, 31,  32 
Blair,  Mr.  John,  and  "  Young  Scots' 

Society,"  211,  213 
Blair,  Thomas,  at  Rosyth,  6 
Board  of  Trade,  Mr.    Lloyd  George's 

administrative  talent  at,  274 
Boers,  popularity  of,  after  war,  197 
Bomba,  King,  80 
Books,  availability  of,  to-day,  14 

which  influenced  boyhood,  10, 15-17 
Border  Burghs,  The,  Alexander  Laing 

Brown,  member  for,  106 
Austen  Chamberlain  candidate  for, 

107 

Conan  Doyle  candidate  for,  260 
Election  for,  108-109,  119 
Home  Rule  and,  107 
Liberal  staunchness  of,  128 
Lord   Shaw   accepts   invitation   to 

contest,  104 
Sir  George  Trevelyan,  member  for, 

105 
Botha,     General,    Liberal    dinner    to, 

198 

Lord  Roberts  writes  to,  on  repri- 
sals, 222 

Lord  Shaw  and,  198 
Mr.  Balfour,   and,   198-200 
prophecy  on  Confederation  of  South 

Africa,  200 
quoted  by  Lord  Shaw,  in  Chinese 

Labour  speech,  196-7 
sufferings  of  wife  of,  in  war,  223 
visit  to  England  of,  197 
Bourgeois,  M.,  friendship  with,  310 
Boyd,     Zachary,     Mr.     Gladstone     on 
translation  of  the  Scriptures  by, 
85,   86 


Bright,    John,    denounces    verdict    in 

Rutherglen  case,  49 
mocked  at,  as  pro- Russian,  78 
British  Linen  Company   Bank,   Lord 

Shaw  tries  for  a  clerkship  in,  22 
British    Quarterly   Review,    article    by 

Author  in,  on  Union  with  England 

of  Scotland  and  Ireland,  121 
British  Weekly,  and  Carnegie's  Scotch 

University  Trust,   165 
Brodrick,   Mr.,    and   trial   of   General 

Kritzinger,  205 

Brougham,  Lord,  Gladstone  on,  88 
Brown,  Alexander  Laing,  as  member 

for  Border  Burghs,  106 
Brown,  Dr.  John,  "  Horse  Subsicivae  " 

by,  140 

"  Rab  and  His  Friends,"  by,  139 
stories  of,  139,  140 
Bruce,  Dr.,  12 

and  United  Free  Church,  176 
Bryce,  Mr.  James  (Lord  Bryce),  and 

free    University    education,    155 

et  seq.,  161 
appointment  as  Chief  Secretary  for 

Ireland,  264 
"  The    Constitution    of    America," 

by,  136 

Buckle,  Spanish  History  of,  39 
Bunyan,  "  atmosphere  "  of,  in  Scottish 

homes,  16 
Burglary  at  Lord  Shaw's  Edinburgh 

house,  216  et  seq. 
Burns,     John,     and    Chinese    Labour 

debate,  196 
Burns,    Robert,    as    "  Wizard    of   the 

Future,"  143 
"  atmosphere "      of,    in     Scottish 

homes,  16 
influence  of  poems  of,  on  boyhood, 

15 
quotations  from,  a  propos  of  early 

struggles  of  barrister,  74 
quoted,  on  distribution  of  wealth, 

134 
Buxton,    Mr.    Sydney,    at    dinner    to 

Botha,  198 
in  opposition,  129 
literary  ability  of,  137 
Byron,  Lord,  quoted,  305 


INDEX 


317 


ROYAI,,  politicians'  dinner  party 
at,  266 
Cairns,  Lord    Chancellor    (Sir    Hugh), 

Gladstone's  opinion  of,  89 
Cairns,   Principal  John,   and  Presby- 
terian Union,  173 

and  United  Free  Church,  176 

offered  the  Principalship  of  Edin- 
burgh University,  102 
Calderwood,  Dr.,  Lord  Shaw  and,  36 
Calvin,  organizing  genius  of,  99 
Campbell,      Henry      (see      Campbell- 

Bannerman,  Sir  Henry) 
Campbell-Bannerruan,  Sir  Henry,  ad- 
herence to  principle  by,  245 

and  Carnegie  Scotch  University 
Trust,  158,  163 

and  constitution  for  South  Africa, 
3,  195,  223,  241,  243 

and  Liberal  League,  231 

and  military  policy  in  South  Africa, 
220 

and  "  Pilgrim's  Progress,"  267 

and  United  Free  Church,  177 

as  leader  of  Liberal  Party,  247 

as  Prime  Minister,  251 

as  public  speaker,  235 

authority  of,  272 

character  of,  235,  236,  237 

Chinese  Labour  debate,  and,  196 

death  of,  269 

elected  for  Dunfermline,  27 

elected  Leader  of  Liberal  Party, 
229 

failing  health  of,  258,  268,  280 

first  parliamentary  contest  of, 
26 

formation  of  Ministry  by,  260  et 
seq. 

gift  of,  for  reconciliation  of 
opposites,  271 

interview  with,  after  1905  election, 
251,  26i?et  seq. 

intrigue  against,  261  et  seq. 

letters  from,  241-3,  246,  247,  248, 
249,  250,  251,  259,  261,  265, 
266-7,  268-9 

literary  tastes  of,  238,  239 


Campbell-Bannerman,       Sir       Henry, 
Lord  and  Lady  Shaw  as  guests 
of,  239,  240 
Lord  Shaw's  last  interview  with, 

269 

Lord  Shaw  sees,  concerning  Presby- 
terian legal  proceedings,  183,  184 
meets  Presbyterian  leaders,  175 
on  political  ideal,  3 
Campbell-Bannerman,  Lady,  death  of, 

267 
Canada,  Author  and,  225 

"  Loyalist ','  riots  in,  226 
Canmore,  King  Malcolm,  tomb  of,  17 

tower  of,  17 
Canterbury,  Archbishop  of,  as  guest  of 

Campbell  -  Bannerman,  239 
Carlyle,  as  Lord  Rector  of  Edinburgh 

University,  38 
Carnegie,  Andrew,  27 
as  lover  of  music,  148 
at  Cluny  Castle,  147,  151  et  seq. 
belaudings  of  German  Emperor  by, 

163 

character  of,  144  et  seq. 
death  of,  144 

gift  of,  for  free  University  education, 
145,  156  et  seq.,  160  et  seq.,  166 
et  seq. 
letter  from,   on  University  Trust, 

161 
Lord  Shaw  and,  144  et  seq.,  166  et 

seq. 
Carson,   Sir  Edward,   in  Home   Rule 

Debate,  in 

Catholic  movement  in  Germany,  Glad- 
stone on,  87 
"  Cawnpore,"     by    Sir    George    Tre- 

velyan,  137 

Cazenove,      Provost      Dr.,      discusses 
Tractarian  Movement  with  Mr. 
Gladstone,  86,  87 
Cecil,    Lord    Robert,   and    League    of 

Nations,  314 

"  Century  Magazine,"   146 
Chalmers,    Dr.    Peter,     "  History    of 

Dunfermline  "  by,  17 
Chamberlain,  Mr.  Austen,  as  candidate 

for  Border  Burghs,   107 
elected  for  Worcestershire,  107 


INDEX 


Chamberlain,    Joseph,    and    Crofters' 

agitation,  58 

and  Home  Rule,  107,  124 
South  African  War,  and,  195 
tariff  reform  and,  273 
Channing,  Lord,  and  Kritzinger's  trial, 

207 

Charlestown,  changes  at,  5 
Chinese  labour,  speech  on,  196 
Church,  affairs  of,  in  Scotland  in  the 

'eighties,  99 

duty  and  responsibilities  of,  67-8 
Church  and  State,  Presbyterians  and, 

101,   174 
separation  of,  70 
Church  Courts,  100 
Churchill,  Lord  Randolph,  Loid  Shaw 

pairs  with,  128 
Churchill,  Mr.  Winston,  at   dinner  at 

Cafe  Royal,  266 
Cicero,  influence  of  "  pro  Cluentio  "  on 

Author,  33 
Circuit  Courts,  young  advocates  and, 

47 
Clemenceau,  League  of  Nations  Society 

and,  311 
Clemens,   Samuel,   Mr.   Carnegie   and, 

146,  147 
Cluny  Castle,  Mr.  Carnegie  at,  147,  151 

et  seq. 

Coal  strike  (1920),  234 
Combe,     George,     "  Constitution     of 

Man  "  by,  16 
"  Competition  Wallah,"  by  Sir  George 

Trevelyan,  137 
"  Constitution    of    Man,"    by    George 

Combe,  16 
Cooper,  Mr.  (of  The  Scotsman),  opinion 

regarding,  95 

Mr.  Gladstone's  story  of,  88 
Cordite  vote  (1895),  127 
Corn  Law  Repeal,  78 
Courtney,  Lady,  Author  meets  Botha 

at  house  of,  198 
Courtney,  Lord,  198 

on  trial  of  Kritzinger,  206 
Craigmyle  Library,  Dr.  Ross  at,  159 
Criminal    Cases,    lack    of,    in    Scotch 

Advocate's  experience,    47 
Criminals,  Defence  of,  in'Scotland,  47 


Crofters  Act,  of  1886,  57 

Crofters'  Commissioners,  report  of,  on 

conditions  in  Lewis,  62,  63 
work  of,   57 


D 

DALMENY,  Lord  Shaw  at,  232 
Davidson,  Dr.,  12 

and  United  Free  Church,  176 
Deer    raiders,    Lewis,   trial    of,    57    et 

seq. 
Denney,    and    United    Free    Church, 

176 
Derby,    Lord,    and    Montenegrins    as 

"  half  savage  people,"  86 
Dewar,     Arthur    (Lord    Dewar),    and 

"  Young  Scots'  Society,"  211 
Dickson,   Mr.   Scott,  and  Elgin   Com- 
mission, 1 88 
Dillon,  John,  263 
"  Disendower  "  and  "  Disestablisher, " 

Lord  Shaw  becomes  a,  70 
Dissent,  in  Scotland,  100 
Dockers'  Inquiry,  Lord  Shaw  invited 

to  preside  over,  55 
report  of,  300  et  seq. 
scenes  at,  298  et  seq. 
Dods,  Marcus,  12 

and  United  Free  Church,  176 
Doherty,  trial  and  "  judicial  murder  " 

of,  47-49 

Dollar,  academy  at,  21 
Dollinger,  Dr.,  Mr.  Gladstone  on,  87 
Doyle,   Mr.    Conan,    as  candidate   for 

Border  Burghs,  260 
Dublin,     Lord    Shaw    on   Sinn    Fein 

rebellion  in,  285,  293  et  seq. 
illness  in,  285,  291,  292 
Dunfermline,  Abbey  of,  16 
boyhood  in,  16,  17,  18,  20 
election  scene  in,  27-29 
Elizabeth,  Queen  of  Bohemia,  born 

at,  17 

King  Charles  I.  born  at,  17 
Mr.  Carnegie's  boyhood  at,  146 
Durham,    Lord,    Canadian   report   of, 
226 


INDEX 


319 


EAST   OF   SCOTLAND   Liberal   League, 

meeting  of,  in  Edinburgh,  229 
Lord  Shaw  and,  229-230 
Edinburgh,  difficulty  of  reaching  from 

Dunfermline,  21 
Lloyd  George  at,   274 
Lord   Shaw's   entrance    to    Parlia- 
ment House  at,  41 
Mr.  Gladstone  on  beauties  of,  84 
Mr.  Merriman's  arrival  in,  212-214 
Music  Hall,  Gladstone's  meeting  in, 

80  et  seq. 

Parliament  House  of,  252  et  seq. 
student's  life  in,  35,  36 
Edinburgh  Reviewers,  Mr.   Gladstone 

on,  88 
Edinburgh      University,       celebrated 

Lord  Rectors  of,  38 
Ghillie's  success  at,   154 
Lord  Shaw  at,  31  et  seq. 
principalship  of,  offered  to  Dr.  John 

Cairns,  102 

Stevenson  competitor  for  professor- 
ship at,  139 
Education,    a    passion    with    parents, 

19 
"  Educational      Ladder,"      ambitions 

concerning,   145 
Lord  Shaw  and,  22,  31,  128 
Edward  VII.,  King,  sends  for  Camp- 

bell-Bannerman,   260 
telegram  to  concerning  Kritzinger, 

207,   208 
'Eighties,     The,    affairs     of     Scottish 

Church  in,  99 
Author's    recollections    of,    73    et 

seq.,  98  et  seq. 
public  feeling  in,  78 
Election  scenes  in  the  'sixties,  26-29 
Elgin    Commission,    appointment    of, 

188 
Elgin,    Lord,    and    Carnegie's    Scotch 

University  Trust,  168,  169 
leaves  Colonial  Office,  281 
"  Encyclopaedia      Britannica,"      Lord 

Shaw  as  contributor  to,  39 
England,  "  blindness  of,"  in  relation  to 
Irish  affairs,  79,  80 


Essex  Hall,  meeting  at,  concerning 
Kritzinger's  trial,  205,  206 

Established  Church  of  Scotland,  101 

Ethics,  appointed  assistant  professor 
of,  36 

Evangelicalism  in  Scottish  life,  140, 
141 

Evans,  Sir  Francis,  267 

Evans,  Sir  Samuel,  72 


FELLOWSHIP  gained  at  Edinburgh 
University,  37 

Fenwick,  Mr.,  113 

Finance,  in  the  'eighties,  78 

Follett,  Sir  William,  Gladstone's  opin- 
ion of,  89 

Foreign  Affairs  in  the  'eighties,  interest 
of  Scotland  in,  78 

Foreign  policy  in  the  'eighties,  78 

Forgery,  defence  in  case  of,  49-54 

Foster,  Sir  Walter  (Lord  Ilkestone), 
at  Cluny  Castle,  151,  153, 

154 

Fowler,  Sir  Henry,  264 
France,  restoration  of  Christian  Sab- 
bath in,  66 

Free  Church  of  Scotland  and  Church 
and  State,  perplexity  of,  in  rela- 
tion to,  101 

question  of  union  and,  101 
"  theological  princes  "  of,  12 
Free     University     Education,      Lord 

Shaw  and,  155  et  seq. 
Mr.  Carnegie  and,  145,  148  et  seq., 

155  et  seq.,  i6oet  seq. 
French  biography,  attraction  of,  39 
French  literature,  309 
French    Revolution,     distribution    of 
testamentary     property     under, 

134 

influence  of  Plutarch  on,  40 
Front   Bench,    promotion   to,    113    et 

seq. 

Froude,  as  Lord  Rector  of  Edinburgh 
University,  38 


320 


INDEX 


GENERAL     Assembly    of    Church     of 

Scotland,    Lord     Shaw     at,     as 

Solicitor-General,  69 
George,     Mr.     Lloyd,     administrative 

talent  of,  274 

and  "  Wee  Macgreegor,"  273 
as  sermon  hearer,  272,  273 
asks  Author  to  preside  at  Dockers' 

inquiry,   55 

at  Cafe  Royal  dinner,  266 
at  dinner  to  Botha,  198 
at  Edinburgh,  274 
character  of,  272 

Chinese  Labour  debate  and,  196 
eloquence  of,  274 
escape  at  Birmingham  of,  195 
Lord  Shaw  and,  272 
Parliamentary  dexterity  of,  129 
German  Emperor,  Mr.  Carnegie's  "  be- 

laudings  "  of,  163 
German  thought,  Scottish  theologians 

and,  12 
Germany,      and       Britain's      protest 

against    invasion    of     Belgium, 

277 
policy   of,    in    Belgium,    compared 

with    British    in    South    Africa, 

224 

Germany's  code  of  terror,  71 
Gladstone,  Mr.  Herbert,  84 
Gladstone,  Mrs.,  91 
Gladstone,    W.    E-,    adulation   of,    by 

Scotsman,  93 
and  Italy,  80 
admiration  for,  79,  136 
appearance  of,  82,  84 
as     Lord     Rector     of    Edinburgh 

University,  38 
at    meeting    in    Edinburgh    Music 

Hall,  8 1 
death  of,  112 
discusses     Tractarian     Movement 

with  Dr.  Cazenove,  86,  87 
gestures  of,  82 
herculean  work  of,  on  Home  Rule, 

130 

Home  Rule  debate,  and,  112 
introduction  to,  87 


Gladstone,  W.  E.,  listens  to  Author's 

maiden  speech,  in 
Lord  Shaw's  conversation  with,  in 
third   Midlothian    campaign,    83 
et  seq, 

Midlothian  campaign  of,  78  et  seq. 
Morley's  life  of,  79 
on  beauties  of  Edinburgh,  84 
on  Dr.  Dollinger,  87 
on  Lord  Brougham  and  Scarlett, 

88,  89 

on  Luther,  87 
on  Montenegrins,   86 
on  Pere  Hyacinthe,  87 
on    reproduction    of    old    Scottish 

literature,   85 

personality  of,   81,   82,  90,  91 
recollections  of  great  lawyers  of,  8g> 

90 

reversal  of  Scotsman's  policy  con- 
cerning, 94 
story  of  Mr.   Cooper,  of  Scotsman, 

88 
Glasgow,  defence    of    Doherty   at,  47, 

48 

Glasgow  University,  Zachary  Boyd's 
translation  of  Scriptures  at, 
86 

Good  Words,  15 
Gordons,  land  of,  i 
Goschen,    Sir    Edward,    Sir    Edward 

Grey's  letter  to,  277 
Great  War,  aftermath  of,  2,  71 
literary  recreations  in,  309 
on  justice  of,  308 
popular  feeling  on,  308 
Greek,  a  ghillie's  knowledge  of,  153 
as  a  compulsory  university  study, 

3i 
Grey,  Sir  Edward  (Lord),  229 

and      Campbell- Bannerman,     262, 

263 

and  Ireland,  275 
great  despatches  of,  276,  308 
influence  of  Rosebery  on,  275 
League  of  Nations,  and,  314 
letter    to    Sir     Edward     Goschen, 

277 

The  Times  and,  262 
Guthrie,  Dr.,  15 


INDEX 


321 


H 

HAI<DANE,  Mr.  (Lord),  229 

and  Campbell-Bannerman,  262,  263 
and  United  Free  Church,  177 
as  Secretary  for  War,  274,  275 
Author  and,  275 
Haldane,  Sir  William,  as  Crown  Agent 

for  Scotland,  280 
Hallam,  Arthur,  Gladstone  as  associate 

of,  80 

Hamilton,     Sir     William,     fellowship 
founded  in  memory  of,  gained  by 
Author,  37 
Harcourt,    Sir    William,   and    Liberal 

Imperialism,  228 
as  Leader  of  the  Commons,  113 
as  Leader  of  Opposition,  130 
Campbell-Bannerman  on,  250 
experiences  at  Parliamentary   Bar 

of,  130,  131 
Lord  Shaw  and,  130 
meets  Presbyterian  leaders,   175 
resignation  of,  229 
Healy,  Mr.  Tim,  130 
Highland  land  question,  acute  feeling, 

over,  57 

"  History  of  Civilization,"  by  Buckle,  10 
"  History    of    Irish    Land    Acts,"    by 

Barry  O'Brien,   122 
"  History        of        Philosophy,"        by 

Schwegler,  37 

Hobbes,  "  Leviathan  "  by,  310 
Hogge,     Mr.,     and     "  Young     Scots' 

Society,"  211 
Home  Rule,  "  put  into  cold  storage," 

130 

Home  Rule  Bill,  division  on,  122 
safety  and  "  moderation  of,"  1 20 
speech  on,  in 
Home    Rule    Parliament    (1892-1895), 

impressions  of,  no  et  seq. 
Home  Rule  policy,  Liberal,  80 

Border  Burghs  election  on,   107 
"  Horse    Subsicivse,"     by    Dr.    John 

Brown,  140 
Home,     Sir     Robert,     and     Docker's 

Inquiry,  55 
Hugo,  Victor,  309 
Hyacinthe,  P^re,  Mr.  Gladstone  on,  87 

V 


I 

II.KESTONE,  Lord  (see  Foster,  Sir  Walter) 
Imperialism,  Liberal,  228 

Liberal   militaristic,    205-6 
Lord  Rosebery  and,  210 
the  true,  199 

Unionist  Government  and,   129 
Infidels,  Lord  Shaw  accused   of   being 

an  associate  of,  70 
Inglis,  Lord  President,  43 

and  opinions  of  Lord  Jeffrey,  88 
Inheritance,  Law  of,  132,  133 
"  Innocents   Abroad,"   Mark   Twain's 

story  of,  147 
Inns  of  Court,  as  "  sweet  ornaments  " 

of  English  and  Irish  Bar,  45 
Inverkeithing,  changes  at,  5 
Ireland,  effect  of  events  in,  on  opinion 

of  Gladstone's  policy,  79 
family  interest  in,  284 
German  rifles,  etc.,  in,  in  Dublin 

rebellion,  296 
martial  law  in,  296 
politics  of,  119 
"  reprisals  "in,  219 
Royal     Commission    on     Importa- 
tion of  Arms  into,  285  et  seq. 


JAMES,  Lord,  of  Hereford,  and  United 

Presbyterian  action,  191 
Jameson  raid,  130 
Jessel,  Gladstone's  opinion  of,  89 
Johnston,  Sir  Harry,  on  South  African 

War,  249 
Judicial  Committee  of  Privy  Council, 

experiences  on,  305  et  seq. 
marine  problems  before,  72 
"  Judicial  Murder,"  participant  in  a, 

47-49 


KANT,  37 

"  Khaki  "  election,  244 

Campbell-Bannerman  on,  246 
Kinnear,  Dean  (afterwards  Lord),  43 


322 


INDEX 


Kinross,  Lord  (see  also  Balfour,  Lord 

Advocate) 
and  United  Presbyterian  action,  191 

Kitchener,  Lord,  at  Vereeniging  Con- 
ference,  202-3 

Knollys,  Lord,  and  telegram  to  King 
on  Kritzinger,  207,  208 

Knox,  John,  educational  ideal  of,  156 
masterful  intellect  of,  99 

Kritzinger,  General,  trial  of,  205  et  seq. 


LABOUR,    and    "  dangers   of   confisca- 
tion," 134 

conditions    and    hours    of,  in    the 
'sixties,  24  et  seq. 

rights  and  duties  of,  301-3 
Land,  inequality  of  distribution  of,  57 

law  of  inheritance  and,  132,  133 
Land  Bill,  Ireland  (1895),  121 

rejection  of,  120 
Latin,  a  ghillie's  knowledge  of,  153 

teaching  of,  at  Edinburgh  Univer- 
sity, 32,  33 
"  L'Avenement    de    Bonaparte,"    by 

Vandal,  66 

Law  and  Jurisprudence,  304 
Law,  Mr.  Bonar,  55 
Law  of   Nations,   and  destruction  of 
property  in  war,  222 

and  reprisals,  219 
League  of  Nations,  America  and,  312 

formation  of,  311 

future  of,  312,  314 

Lord  Grey  and,  314 

Lord  Robert  Cecil  and,  314 
League  of  Nations  Society,  deputation 
of,  to  Peace  Conference,  310 

Lord  Shaw  and,  278,  311 
Learmont,  Mr.  Thomas,  recollections  of 

Sir  Walter  Scott  of,  141,  142 
Lee,   Dr.  Robert,  Mr.  Gladstone  and, 

86 

Leese,  Sir  Joseph,  112 
Leibnitz,  37 
"  Les  Miserables,"  310 
"  Leviathan,"  by  Hobbes,  310 
Lewis,  Crofters  agitation  on,  58 


Lewis  deer  raiders,  trial  of,  57  et  seq. 

Lewis,  Herbert,  129 

Lewis,  Sir  George  Cornewall,  "  on  the 

Government    of    Dependencies," 

39 
Liberal  Government  (1895)  defeat  of, 

127 

Liberal  Imperialism,  129 
Liberal  League,    Campbell-Bannerman 

and,  231,  249 
formation  of,  210,  229 
meeting  of  East  of  Scotland,  229 
Mr.  Morley  and,  231 
Liberal  Party,  disruption  of,  245 

under  Campbell- Bannerman's  lea- 
dership, 247-8 
Liberalism  and  South  African  war,  199 

et  seq. 

"  Life  of  Cobden,"  by  John  Morley,  137 
"  Life  of  Gladstone,"  by  Lord  Morley, 

79 
"  Life    of    Lord    Courtney,"    by    Mr. 

Gooch,  206 
"  Life  of  Macaulay,"  by   Sir    George 

Trevelyan,  137 
Limekilns,  changes  at,  5 
Lindley,  Lord,  judgment  of,  on  Free 

Church  action,  181,  191 
Lindsay,  Dr.,  12 

and  United  Free  Church,  176 
Literature,   Author's  "  true  delights  " 

in,  44,  309 

"  Literature  of  Knowledge,"   15 
Local  Government  Bill  for  Scotland, 

119 
Loch  Laggan,  Lord  Shaw  and  ghillie 

on,  151  et  seq. 

London,  power  of  Press  in,  93 
Long,   Mr.   Walter,    and   Royal   Com- 
mission on  Importation  of  Arms 

into  Ireland,  285 
Lord     Advocate,    appointed    as,    263, 

265,  279,  281 
increased  salary  of,  125 
salary  of,  279 
Lord  of  Appeal,  Scotch,  appointment 

as,  281 

Lords,  House  of,  application  of  judg- 
ment of,  in  Free  Church  action, 

182 


INDEX 


323 


Lords,  House  of,  judgment  of,  on  Free 

Church  action,  181 
Lord  Shaw  on  judgment  of,  187 
maiden  speech  in,  1 1 1 
results   of   judgment   of,    on    Free 

Church  action,   185,   186 
war-time    shipping    problems  and, 

72 
widespread    uneasiness   concerning 

judgment  of,  190 
Louis  Philippe,  and  Testamentary  Law, 

133 
Lowell,      James      Russell,      "  Biglow 

Papers,"  quoted,  193 
"  Lucknow,"  recollections  of,  6 
Luther,  Mr.  Gladstone  on,  87 


M 

MACDERMOTT,  The,   121 

Mackarness,  Mr.,  and  dinner  to  Botha, 

198 

Macleod,  Dr.  Norman,  15 
MacNaghten,   Lord,  judgment  of,   on 

Free  Church  action,  181,  191 
Macnamara,  Dr.,  in  opposition,  129 
MacPherson,  Hector,  and  "  Young 

Scots'  Society,"  210 
Macrae,  Donald,  leader  of  Lewis  deer 

raid,  59 

trial  and  defence  of,  59  et  seq. 
"  Mansie  Waugh,"  humour  of,  16 
Martial  law,  speech  on,  296-7 
Massingham,  Mr.,  at  dinner  to  Botha, 

198 

Masson,   Professor,  character  and  in- 
fluence of,  34,  35 
introduces  Lord  Shaw  to  Professor 

Baynes,  39 
Mathieson  estate,  Lewis,  58 

Crofters  Commission  report  on,  62, 

63 
Maxwell,  Sir  William  Stirling,  as  Lord 

Rector  of  Edinburgh  University, 

38 

prize  offered  by,  38 
May,  Sir  Erskine,  90 
McCormick,  Sir  William,  as  Secretary 

of  Scotch  University  Trust,  169 


McDonald,  Miners'  Leader,  24 
McDowall  of  Alloa,  on  those  "  worse 

than  infidels,"  70 
McGhie,  Mr.,  113 
McKechnie,  first  meeting  with,  43 

sending  for,  43,  44 
McKenna,  Mr.  Reginald,  129,  266 
McLaren,  Lord,  96 
McPhail,   Sheriff,    and  trial  of  Lewis 

deer  raiders,  60,  61 
Mellor,  Mr.  (Chairman  of  Committee), 

112 

Melville,  Andrew,  and  King's  preroga- 
tive, 68 
Merriman,  Mr.,  at  Edinburgh,  211  et 

seq. 
Middle    Temple,    General    Smuts    as 

student  of,  201 ;  elected  Honorary 

Bencher  of,  202 
Honorary  Bencher  of,  201 
Midlothian  campaign,  77  et  seq. 
Militarism,    and  South  African   War, 

204 

Liberals  and,  205,  228 
Tory  party  at  mercy  of,  245 
Mill,   John  Stuart,   "  Examination  of 

Hamilton's  Philosophy,"  by,  37 
Miller,  Hugh,  influence  of  death  of,  12 
"  My  Schools  and  Schoolmasters," 

by,  9 

suicide  of,  9 

"  The  Testimony  of  the  Rocks,"  9 
Milner,  Lord,  at  Vereeniging  Confer- 
ence, 202 

on  South  African  Constitution,  198, 

199 
Milton,  on  fame,  74 

on  Sir  Harry  Vane,  69 
Miners,  meetings  of,  24 
"  Mines  Regulations  Acts,"  25 
Mine-sweepers,  "  one  of  the  glories  of 

the  war,"  71 

Mirabeau,  on  Testamentary  Law,  133 
Moliere,  309 

Montenegrins,  Mr.  Gladstone  on,  86 
Moray  Firth,  mine-sweepers  of,  71 
Morley,  Lord,  and  Liberal  League,  231 

and  Lord  Shaw,  119,  120,  189,  233 

as  editor  of  "  The  Fortnightly,"  136 

at  Cluny  Castle,  151,  153 


324 


INDEX 


Morley,  Lord,  Author's  estimate  of,  79 
Campbell  -  Bannerman's      Ministry 

and,  263 

Chinese  Labour  Debate  and,  196 
great  despatches  of,  at  India  Office 

of,  276 
letter    to    Times    by,    on    South 

African  reprisals,  222 
"  Life  of  Cobden,"  by,  137 
"  Life  of  Gladstone,"  by,  79 
meets  Presbyterian  leaders,  175 
Mr.  Carnegie  and,  161 
Morrison,  Thomas,  ex-chartist,  27 
prophecy  of,  concerning  Campbell- 

Bannerman,  27 
Murray,  Graham,   125 

and  Elgin  Commission,  188 


N 

NAPOLEON  and  distribution  of  testa- 
mentary property,  134 
Neaves,  Lord,  and  "  Judicial  Murder," 

48 

Nelson,  Mr.  Gladstone  and,  84,  85 
Newman,    Cardinal,    Professor    Rainy 

on,  176 

Newspapers,  influence  of,  on  Author,  92 
Nicoll,    Sir    William    Robertson,    and 

Carnegie's      Scotch      University 

Trust,  164,  165 
Nineteenth  Century,  article  in,  on  "  The 

Durham  Road  to  Peace,"  225 
article  in,   on  "  The    Educational 

Peace  of  Scotland,"  156,  161 
Mr.  Carnegie  and,  156,  157 


O'BRIEN,  BARRY,  "  History  of  the  Irish 

Land  Acts,"    122 
Ochil  Hills,  i,  22 
O'Connor,  Mr.  T.  P.,  121,  263 
Opposition,    in    Parliament   of     1895, 

characteristics  of,  119 
line  taken  by  Author  in,  127,  128, 

135 
Orr,  Dr.,  12 

and  United  Free  Church,  176 


PARIS,  visit  for  League  of  Nations  to, 
310 

Park,  Mungo,  influence  of  "  Travels  " 
of,  on  boyhood,  15 

Parliament  House,  Edinburgh,  en- 
trance to,  41 

experiences  in,  252  et  seq. 
recollections  of,  42  et  seq. 

Parliamentary  Bar,  Sir  William 
Harcourt's  experiences  at,  130, 

131 

Paton,  Mr.  Forester,  236 
Peace  Conference,  deputation  to,  310 
Peel,  Mr.  Speaker,  and  Lord  Shaw,  124, 

125 

Petition  of  Right,  discussion  of  proce- 
dure of,  in  Home  Rule  Parlia- 
ment, in 

discussion  in   Home  Rule  debate, 
112 

Philosophy,  influence  of,  on   Author, 

37.  44 

Pittencrieff,  Glen  of,  17 
Plato,  influence  of,  on  Author,  37 
Plunkett,  Sir  Horace,  294 
Plutarch,     influence    of,     on     French 

Revolution,  40 
Pope,  Mr.,  Sir  William  Harcourt  and, 

131-132 

Presbyterian,  Lord  Shaw  as,  68,  69,  100 
Presbyterian  Free  Church,  connexion 

of  Church  and  State  and,  174 
differences  in,  176 
Elgin  Commission  appointed,  188 
judgment  on  action  of,  181 
minority  of,  issues  summons,  179 
minority    of,     refuses    arbitration 

185 

mission  work  of,  185 

Principal  Rainy  and,  174 

"  sacred    responsibilities  "    of    mi- 
nority of,  184 

strength  of  minority  in,  185 

sustentation  fund  of,  186 

union  of,  with  United  Presbyterian 

Church,  176 

Presbyterianism,  and  connexion  with 
secular  power,  101 


INDEX 


325 


Presbyterianism,  influence  of,  in  Scot 

land,  99-100 

State  endowments  and,  102 
Press,    and  Merriman's  visit  to  Edin- 
burgh, 216 
and      Scotch      University      Trust, 

164 

influence  of,  92,  93 
Scottish  objection  to  domination  of, 

93,   94 

Press-copying,  as  an  innovation,  26 

Primogeniture,  Lord  Shaw's  Bill  rela- 
tive to,  133 

Privy  Council,  Judicial  Committee  of, 

305  et  seq. 

war-time   shipping   problems   and, 
72 

"  Puddenhead      Wilson,"      Carnegie's 
talk  compended  in,  147 


"  RADICAL  Pro-Boer  School,"  274 
Railway  strike,  threat  of,  in  1920,  234 
Rainy,  Principal  Robert,  12 

and  Presbyterian  Free  Church,  174 
and  United  Free  Church,  181 
character  of,  172 
letters  from,   on  Presbyterian  law 

case,  183,  189,  190 
on  Cardinal  Newman,   176 
on  The  Scotsman,  95 
Reay,  Lord,  as  Trustee  of  Carnegie's 
Scotch  University  Trust,  158,  163 
"  Recollections  of  Bar  and  Bench,"  by 

Lord  Alverstone,   191 
Redmond,  John,  121,  263 

Lord  Shaw  and,  122,  123 
Redmond,  William,   122 
Reform  Act  (1867),  27 
Reits,  Mr.  F.  W.,  power  of  despatches 

of,  276 
Religion,     influence    of,     on    Scottish 

character,   1 1 

"  Reprisals,"  in  Ireland,  219 
in  South  Africa,  221 
Law  of  Nations  and,  219 
results  of,  in  South  Africa,  223 
Rigby,  Lord,  "  ponderousness  "  of,  in 


Ripon,  Lord,  264 

Roberts,    Lord,     and    annexation    of 

South  African  Republics,  223 
letter  to  Botha  on  reprisals,  222 
proclamations  of,  in  South  Africa, 

220,  221,  222 
Robertson,    Lord,    and    Free    Church 

case,  191 
death  of,  281 
Robson,  Mr.,  129 
Rosebery,  Lord,  125,  126,  232 
and  Mirabeau,  232 
and  United  Free  Church,  177 
as  Prime  Minister,  113 
Campbell-Bannerman's     nickname 

for,  268 

"  high  literary  gifts  of,"  136 
influence  of,  on  Sir  Edward  Grey, 

275 

Liberal  Imperialism  and,  210 
Lord    Courtney's    appeal    to,    con- 
cerning  Kritzinger,    206 
meeting  of  East  of  Scotland  Liberal 

League,  and,  229 
resignation  of,  229 
withdrawal  from  public  affairs  of, 

231 

Ross,  Dr.  (Sir  John  Ross),  and  Car- 
negie's Scotch  University  Trust, 
157,  159,  161,  163,  164,  165,  166 
et  seq. 

Rosyth,  boyhood  at,  6 
changes  at,  5  et  seq. 
Round  Table  Conference,  107 
Royal  Commission  on  Importation  of 
arms  into  Ireland,  Lord  Shaw  as 
president  of,  285  et  seq. 
report  of,  285  et  seq. 
Russell,  George,  137 
Russell,  Sir  Charles  (Lord Chief  Justice), 

112 
Rutherglen  case,  47-49 


SABBATH  Day  (see  also  Sunday),  novel- 
reading    on,  in  Scottish  homes, 

15 

observance  of,  65  et  seq. 


326 


INDEX 


Sabbath   Day,  restoration  by'  France 

of  Christian,  66 

Sadowa,  Lord  Shaw's  recollections  of,  7 
St.  Magnus  Cathedral,  Sir  W.  Scott  and 

255 

St.  Nicholas,  146 

Sampson,  Mr.  George,  12,  13 

Sauer,     Mr.,     and     "  Young     Scots' 

Society,"  211 

Scarlett,  Mr.  Gladstone  on,  88,  89 
Scheepers,  death  of,  204,  206 
Schwegler,  "  History  of   Philosophy  " 

by,  37 

Scotch  Education  Act,  1872,  20 
Scotch  Grand  Committee,  as  a  "  battle- 
field," 119 
increased  salaries  for  Scottish  Law 

Officers  and,  125 
Scotch  University  Trust,  Mr.  Carnegie's, 

appointment  of  Trustees  for,  158 

et  seq. 
development  of,  160  et  seq.,  166  et 

seq. 

Dr.  Ross  as  treasurer  of,  170 
Press  and,  164 
Sir  W.  McCormick  as  secretary  of, 

169 
Sir  W.  Robertson  Nicoll  and,  164, 

165 

story  of  origin  of,  148  et  seq. 
Scotland,  Bill   on  Law  of  Succession 

in,  133 

dissent  in,  100 
Established  Church  in,  101 
evangelicalism  in,  140,  141 
Free  University  education  in,  and 

Mr.  Carnegie,  145,  148  et  seq.,  155 

et  seq.,  160  et  seq. 
independence  of  journalistic  lead- 
ing strings  in,  93 
interest  in  views  of  Adam  Smith  in, 

78 

power  of  testacy  in,  133 
Presbyterianism  and,  99,  100 
public   affairs   in  the  'eighties   in, 

77.  ?8 

"  sagging  "  of  Liberalism  in,  210 
solidarity  of  belief  in,  100 
Scotsman,  The,  "  adulation  "  of  Glad- 
stone by,  93 


Scotsman,  The,  Lord  Shaw  and,  95,  96 
reversal    of    policy    of,    concerning 

Gladstone,   94 
Scott,  Mr.  Hope,  Sir  William  Harcourt 

and,   131-2 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  as  sheriff,  141 
as  "  Wizard  of  the  Past,"  143 
citation  of  "  The  Pirate,"  255 
stories  of,  141,  142 
Scottish  literature,  Mr.  Gladstone  on 

reproduction  of  old,  85 
Sebastopol,  recollections  of,  7 
Seely,  Captain,  266 

Sellar,  Professor,  at  Edinburgh  Univer- 
sity, 32,  33 
Sexton,  Mr.,  121,  124 
Shakespeare,  15,  225,  309 

Professor  Masson's  lectures  on,  34 
quoted,  227 
Shand,    Lord,   judgment  of,   on   Free 

Church  action,   181,  191 
Shaw,  Alexander  (son  of  Lord  Shaw), 

63,  64,  259 
Shaw,  Mr.  (Author's  father),  death  of, 

8,  19 

Shaw,    Mrs.    (Author's    mother),     re- 
collections of,  8-10,  20,  22,  148, 

149 
''  Shaw's  Million,"  Mr.  Carnegie  and, 

161 
Simpson,    Sir   Walter,    tour   of,    with 

R.  L.  Stevenson,  138 
Sinn  Fein  Rebellion,  Lord  Shaw  and, 

285,  293  et  seq. 

Skibo,  Mr.  Carnegie  and,  146 
Slaves,     emancipation     of,     influence 

of   "  Uncle  Tom's    Cabin "    on, 

16 
Smith,  Adam,  and  United  Free  Church, 

176 
interest  in   views  of,    in    Scottish 

homes,  78 

"  Wealth  of  Nations,"  by,  16,  38 
Smith,  Principal  Sir  G.  Adam,  12 
Smith,  Robertson,  12 

and  United  Free  Church,  176 
Smith,  Sydney,  on  Ireland,  122,  123 
Smuts,    General,    and    South    African 

Constitution,  199 
as  constitutional  lawyer,  201 


INDEX 


327 


Smuts,  General,  as  student  of  Middle 

Temple,  201 
character  of,  2 

death  of  infant  child  of,  in  Concen- 
tration Camp,   223 
letter  on  aftermath  of  Great  War,  2 
on  conference  at  Vereeniging,  201 
Solicitor-General  for  Scotland,  appoint- 
ment as,  69,  116,  136 
increased  salary  of,  125 
resignation  of  Mr.  Asher  as,  1 16,  117 
Solicitor's  office,  work  in,  22-3,  25-9, 

30 
South  Africa,  annexation  of  Republics 

of,  224 

Constitution  for,  granted  by  Sir  H. 

Campbell-Bannerman,     3,     195 ; 

Mr.     Balfour     on,     198  ;      Lord 

Milner  on,  198,  199 

Lord    Roberts's   proclamation    in, 

220-1 

on  military  policy  in,   220 
results  of  reprisals  in,  223 
South  African  Confederation,  Botha's 

prophecy  on,  200 
South    African    war,     disillusionment 

over,  273 

militarists  and,   205 
outbreak  of,  194 
popular  feelings  on,  308 
Spencer,  "Bobby,"  and    Author,  125 
Spencer,  Lord,  121 

Spenser,  Edmund,  reading  of,  225,  309 
State     Endowments,    Presbyterianjsm 

and,  1 01 

Stevenson,  Robert  Louis,  as  competi- 
tor for  Professorship  of  Constitu- 
tional History,  139 
"  Catriona,"  by,   139 
"  Kidnapped,"  by,  139 
recollections  of,  137,  138 
Sir   Walter   Simpson's    tour   with, 

138,  139 

"  Virginibus  Puerisque,"  by,  139 
Stirling     Burghs,     Lord     Shaw     and 

Campbell-Bannerman  in,  235 
Strachan,    and    trial    of    Lewis    deer 

raiders,  60 

Strikes,  colliers'  and  railway,  234 
Students'  life  in  Edinburgh,  35,  36 


Submarines,  German,  action  of,  71 
Sunday,  as  Day  of  Rest,  65-67 

"  story  factory,"  46 
Sunday  at  Home,  15 
Sutherland,  Tom,  233 
Synod,  composition  of,  100,  173 

quality  of  debates  in,  101,  102 


TARIFF  REFORM,  Unionists  and,  273 
Temple,  Sir  Richard,  congratulates  the 
Solicitor-General     for     Scotland 
(Lord  Shaw),  69 
Tennyson,  "  In  Memoriam,"  80 

Lord  Shaw  quotes  "Pagan  England" 
of,  in  Lewis  deer  raiders'  trial,  62 
quoted,  10,  227 

Testae y,  Power  of,  in  Scotland,  133 
"  The   Constitution   of   America,"   by 

Mr.  Bryce,  136 

"  The     Durham     Road     to     Peace," 
article    by    Lord    Shaw    on,    in 
Nineteenth  Century,  225 
"  The  Educational  Peace  of  Scotland," 
article  in  Nineteenth  Century,  by 
Lord  Shaw,  156 
Mr.  Carnegie  and,  156,  157,  161 
"  The  Pilgrim's  Progress,"  influence  of, 
on  Lord  Shaw's  boyhood,  10,  n 
"  The  Scots  Worthies,"  influence  of, 

on  Lord  Shaw's  boyhood,  10 
"  The  Testimony  of  the  Rocks,"  by 

Hugh  Miller,  9 

Thorns  case,  Lord  Shaw  and,  253  et  seq. 
Timet,     The,     and     intrigue     against 
Campbell-Bannerman,  262  et  seq. 
Tiree,  Crofters'  agitation  on,  58 
Tractarian    Movement,    discussed    by 
Mr.  Gladstone  with  Dr.  Cazenove, 
86,  87 
Trevelyan,     Sir    George,     "  American 

History,"  by,  137 
as  member  for  Border  Burghs,  105 
"  Cawnpore,"  by,  137 
"  Competition  Wallah,"  by,  137 
letter  to  Author  from,  105 
"  Life  of  Macaulay,"  by,  137 
secession  of,  on  Home  Rule,  107 


328 


INDEX 


u 

Ui<STER,    and    importation    of    arms, 

286-88 
"  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  emancipation 

of  slaves  and,  16 
influence  of,  on  boyhood,  16 
United  Free  Church,   action  by  Free 

Church  against,  179  et  seq. 
as  "  Free  Democracy,"  177 
campaign    on    judgment     against, 

184,  187 

Elgin  Commission  appointed,    188 
first  General  Assembly  of,  177 
formation  of,  176 
judgment  on  Free  Church  action 

against,   181 

legal  proceedings  of,  182  et  seq. 
United      Presbyterian     Church,     and 

judgment  on  Free  Church  action, 

181 

member  of,  68,  172 
principles  of,   172 
union     with     Presbyterian      Free 

Church,  176 
Ure,     Mr.,     as    Solicitor-General     for 

Scotland,    280 
defence  of,  in  House  of  Commons, 

251 


VANDAL,   on    Sabbath  in   "  I/Avene- 

ment  de  Bonaparte,"  66 
Vane,  Sir  Harry,  Milton  on,  69 
Vereeniging  Conference,  202,  203 
Vergniaud,  Girondist   leader,  admira- 
tion for,  39 


"  Virginibus    Puerisque,"    admiration 

for,  139 
Viviani,  M.,  and  League  of  Nations,  311, 

3H 

W 

WALLACE,  Dr.,  in  opposition,  128 
Waverley  Market,  Edinburgh,  United 

Free  Church  meeting  at,  179 
United  Presbyterian  meeting  at,  176 
"  Young  Scots'  Society's  "  meeting 

at,  211  et  seq. 
"  Wealth     of     Nations,"     by     Adam 

Smith,  1 6 
Webster,  Sir  Richard  (see  also  Alver- 

stone,  Lord),  465 
at  Cluny  Castle,  151 
"  Wee  Macgreegor,"  Lloyd  George  and, 

273 

Week-ending,  habit  of,  66 
Westbury,   Lord,   Gladstone's  opinion 

of,  89 

Westminster,  changes  in,  114 
Whyte,  Dr.,  272 
Wilson,  H.  J.,  and  Kritzinger's  trial, 

207 
Wilson,     President,     and    League    of 

Nations,  312 
Wodrow's  History,  10 
Women,  political  power  of,  134 
Wyndham,     Mr.     George,     as     Chief 

Secretary  for  Ireland,  120 


YOUNG,  Lord,  as  judge  in  forgery  case, 

50-54 
"  Young  Scots'  Society,"  formation  of, 

210-11 


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